Should you put ice in white wine? And other cool puzzles | Fiona Beckett on drinks

During the recent heat wave, friends looked askance at me as I happily tossed ice cubes into my wine. This may sound heretical to some of you, especially from someone who is supposed to be a wine expert - but why the hell not? Wine is supposed to give pleasure, after all, and if it's too hot, it's just not refreshing.

Sometimes when a wine isn't not cold enough, I just drop ice in, stir and pop the cubes out again. In extremis (over 35°C), I leave them inside. (Those big, slow-melting ice cubes are perfect here.)

Of course, I don't do that with every kind of wine; whites and rosés tend to be fresh enough, and I wouldn't dream of popping ice cream in a serious red, but a simple, fruity red? Absolutely. It was delicious the other day with the Austrian Zweigelt from today's selection.

As I pointed out when writing about barbecues the last week, full-bodied reds become unappealing when the temperature rises into the 20s, let alone the 30s. 'between us don't have cellars, you're more likely to resort to 20-30 minutes in the fridge or a dip in an ice bucket. It will warm up fairly quickly in the glass. Don't do this with a heavily oaked wine, as it will accentuate the tannin.

The danger with white wines, conversely, is serving them so cold that you can't taste the fruit. This particularly applies to smooth, dry whites like Chardonnay, which should be served at around 10-13°C, or around like a light red like a Beaujolais or other Gamay (I would serve the Languedoc white from today at this temperature).

Aromatic, off-dry whites such as New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and especially Gewürztraminer can afford to be a little colder, around 7-10C (or 90 minutes to two hours in the fridge, depending on how full it is).

Sweet and sparkling wines should be even colder, at around 6 -9C; in the case of sweet wines to maintain the sweet balance; with sparkling wines, more importantly, to keep the pressure under control, so the wine doesn't squirt out of the bottle when you open the cork. Hot bubbly also tastes unattractive.

You can also keep things cool by not pouring too much wine into your and your guests' glasses. Better to top up from a bottle in the fridge than to find half the wine too warm.

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