The dilemma is common: It’s the dog days of summer and the mercury has spiked to dizzying levels, the kind of heat that begs for a wine that’s light, easy-drinking, and refreshingly chilled. Meantime the grill is crowded with sumptuous proteins that beg for something bolder, fruitier, more flavorful—something that’s decidedly not the crisp, cold white wine and rosés you’ve been sipping all summer long.

The solution is obvious: Just chill a bottle of red wine. But owing to a certain pervasive brand of wine drinking dogma, this most simple (and delicious) fix doesn’t always register with consumers. But blessedly, the misconception that white wines must always be chilled to near freezing while red wines must always live at room temperature is eroding as consumers embrace a wider variety of winemaking styles (a shift attributable at least in part to the growing popularity of natural wine). Some wine drinkers are also gravitating toward lighter, fresher, lower-alcohol reds, which often benefit from a little condensation on the bottle.

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