Can white wine be heated?

We often watch some ancient TV dramas. When some people go to an inn, they will say: "Waiter, give me a pot of sweet wine." Can this wine be heated? In our current era, drinking is something that many people have to do for social occasions. However, people with poor stomachs cannot stand drinking colder wine in winter. They want to use something hot to warm their stomachs. So, can white wine be heated up in normal times?

Heating white wine can evaporate some of the substances in the wine, such as methanol, which are harmful to human health. Methanol is harmful to human optic nerves, but its boiling point is 64.7°C. When heated with boiling water, it turns into gas and evaporates.

Acetaldehyde will increase the spiciness of wine. If a certain amount is consumed, the drinker will feel dizzy. Acetaldehyde is the primary factor leading to drunkenness. The boiling point of acetaldehyde is only 21°C, and it can be evaporated by heating it with hot water.

In addition, some alcohol will evaporate during the heating process. Of course, there is a limit to heating wine. If it is too hot, most or all of the ethanol, the main ingredient in the wine, will evaporate. Moreover, if the wine is too hot, it will damage the lungs after drinking.

The correct way to drink is to drink it when it is neither cold nor hot. This is why the ancients had the sayings of "warming wine" and "warming wine". In the Ming Dynasty, Lu Rong recorded in Volume 11 of Jiyuan Miscellaneous Notes, "I once heard a doctor say, 'Wine should not be drunk cold.' I ignored it, thinking that he did not know Danxi's theory and said so. A few years later, I got dysentery in the autumn and was treated by this doctor. He said, 'Do you drink too much cold wine?' I told him that I believed Danxi's words and often drank cold wine in the summer.

The doctor said, "Danxi knew the harm of hot wine, but he didn't know that the harm of cold wine is even worse!" I was grateful for his words. Hot wine can damage the lungs, but it is mostly beneficial for promoting the flow of qi and harmonizing blood. Cold wine does not harm the lungs, but the stomach hates cold. Drinking too much of it will cause stagnation of qi. As for drinking in the pavilion, it is neither too cold nor too hot, just in the right balance, so there is no harm."

In the eighth chapter of Dream of the Red Chamber written by Cao Xueqin of the Qing Dynasty, there is also the following description: "Here Baoyu said again, 'No need to warm it up, I only like to drink cold wine.' Aunt Xue said, 'That's not good. After drinking cold wine, my hands will tremble when I write.' Baochai laughed and said, 'Brother Bao, you learn a lot every day, but don't you know that wine is the hottest? If you drink it hot, it will dissipate quickly; if you drink it cold, it will condense inside. If you use your five internal organs to warm it, won't it be harmful? You won't change from now on. Stop drinking cold wine.' Baoyu thought this made sense, so he put down the cold wine and asked someone to heat it up before drinking it."

After reading the above introduction, we can see that white wine can be heated. Drinking in this way is good for the body and makes the delicious taste of the wine better. In winter, we can try using hot wine, which is indeed a better choice. But the temperature should not be too high.