Here's the scoop, laid out like an old-style French Marxist might.
Thesis: Chilled wine, or anything else, is harder to taste. It is said that in a blind taste test people cannot distinguish red and white wine when both are chilled enough.
Antithesis: Much (most, I would venture) Beaujolais and Loire Valley wine is pretty thin stuff. The same can be said of much South American wine, and Beaujolais Nouveau can be downright nasty.
Synthesis: Chilling therefore takes the edge off this mediocre wine, improving the experience. Even in the winter, you can enjoy a chilled red just as much as a (chilled) white.
I also heartily second Steinberger's bonus hint about white wine in the last paragraph of his column. Never chill a good white wine very much, because, if you do, you'll loose much of the flavor you have paid the big bucks for. I like to drink good reds and good whites at the same temperature, just a bit below room temperature, 65 or so. Nasty thin whites, which abound (can you say Pinot Grigio?), should, of course, be well chilled!
Happy drinking!
