Salud! Blend (but don’t microwave) to improve a mediocre wine

Go ahead, pair white wine with lamb or red wine with salmon. Drink it in a juice glass or a plastic cup.

But be warned: Some rules about wine were not meant to be broken.

Wine likes certain temperatures, usually around 50 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit for storage, cooler than the average kitchen even in the winter months. Wine oxidizes more slowly if it’s stuck in the fridge instead of left sitting out overnight. So it’s logical that the unhurried wine drinker lacking a fancy wine fridge might store her cabernet sauvignon between the milk and the orange juice to save for later.

But if friends drop by unexpectedly, is it acceptable to pop a glass of that cabernet into the microwave to warm it up? If there is still some left that could go into pasta sauce later, will freezing affect the flavor? Does whirring wine in a blender make it taste better?

Inspired by a recent feature about “Modernist Cuisine” in The New Yorker that suggested that blending wine can improve its flavor, we ran a (rather unscientific) battery of tests on two red wines: the 2009 Bridlewood Pinot Noir ($13.50) and the 2007 Imperio de Sentidos Cabernet Sauvignon ($10).

Consumed at room temperature — about 68 degrees in my living room — the pinot noir was the clear favorite. Light, with raspberry and candy grape flavors, it was fresh and tart with a soft finish.

The cabernet, by contrast, tasted mostly of the barrel in which it was aged. After a short while in the glass, the Imperio de Sentidos opened up and offered spice aromas, but my notes were overwhelmingly oaky: “branches,” “cellar,” “dusty wood.”

Microwaving for 30 seconds decimated the pinot, the warmer temperature masking everything but the alcohol. Likewise, when we nuked the cab for 15 seconds it became intensely sour. As they cooled off, the cab started to show some fruit flavors, but the pinot never recovered. At room temperature, it tasted like a bitter version of Welch’s grape juice.

Freezing wine can be quite economical, eliminating the need to open a new bottle each time you make risotto. But the trend for wine slushies aside (Frappe Vino and Vino Slush combine wine with sugary powder, blend and freeze), we wouldn’t recommend drinking it that way.

Thawed slightly, slushy cubes of pinot and cab had almost no smell at all. The pinot tasted slightly bitter; the cab was brutally harsh. We did note, however, that when returned to warm temperature, the cabernet held up better than the pinot and regained most of its original flavor.

Blending was a revelation. After a few pulses (a few quick seconds), the pinot noir tasted softer, almost sweeter, with less of its bracing tartness. And the cabernet improved exponentially, the tannins tasting softer and dark fruit flavors emerging more prominently. It tasted so good, I wanted to dump the rest of the bottle into the blender.

Ultimately, while red wine may last longer in the fridge, to get the best taste, pull it out in the morning for an evening glass, or hold it like a brandy snifter and warm it slowly with your hands. Trying to return a wine to room temperature quickly is an inexact science, and the risk of turning a decent bottle of wine into an undrinkable one is not worth it.

Better to haul out the blender and give the cabernet a quick buzz. These modernists are onto something.

Lindsay Christians occasionally pours wine tastings at Barriques.