It’s summer, you’ve got the family out back enjoying lunch, and a bottle of wine forgotten to be refrigerated on the counter. No fear, you think, because I’ll add ice to it.

Now you’ve done it: you ruined the sanctity of the wine borne from the blood of Jesus Christ himself, and proven yourself to be nothing of a sommelier, you fool.

Ice and wine is a pairing as controversial as pineapple on pizza – but why? And do a few ice cubes really make that much difference?

“I mean, in the bigger scheme of things, adding ice to your glass of wine is hardly punching puppies or stealing money from the elderly-bad,” says Yvonne Lorkin, chief tasting officer of wine for WineFriend.

“But it’d have to be a pretty dire situation before I’d personally do it.”

“No matter what style of wine you have in your glass, the second you add water to it, it’s going to lose flavour and power. It’s also going to lose crispness and texture.”

As it turns out, even a single ice cube can change the flavour and texture of your wine.

“An average freezer-cube is equivalent to 30ml or 2 tablespoons,” Lorkin says.

“Measure that out and look at it – it’s a lot of water to add to your glass of wine. A couple of cubes is definitely going to dilute pretty much every aspect of the flavour.”

You may be thinking that, surely, a fresh ice cube will only enhance my drink, right?

“Wrong – it’ll get cold, sure, but suddenly you’re diluting the acidity, the alcohol, the fruit intensity and the spice saturation in the drink. So it’ll be cold. And boring,” Lorkin says.

“Which, to be fair, might be an improvement if the wine you’re drinking is awful, and you just want it to be less gag-inducing. In that case, go for it.”

So, a cheap wine with ice – what have you got to lose, really? But if you’ve picked up an expensive bottle from the top shelf, you’ll probably want to retain its flavour by leaving the ice cubes out of it.

Although serving your wine with ice is a controversial move, it is important to know that the temperature at which you serve your wine will also impact on its taste.

For Lorkin, her ideal wine-serving temperatures sit between 7-8C for sparkling wines, light wines (Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Rose) at 9C, richer whites (Chardonnay, Viognier, Albariño, and dessert styles) at 12C, light reds (Gamay, Beaujolais, Pinot Nior) at 13C, and richer reds (Merlot, Cabernet, Syrah, Malbec) at 16C.

Lorkin believes the ice and wine pairing has become so controversial because “for pedants like me … [we] know that making wine is hard.”

“So much can go wrong because you’re at the mercy of mother nature – you’re farming, basically. And unlike crafting say beer or cheese or gin, you’ve only got one shot each year to make it,” Lorkin says.

“When you’re making it, it’s your job to capture all the intensity and purity of flavour in the grape juice so that it creates a flavoursome, joy-inducing wine. You want to avoid any water getting into it because that’ll make your wine more flaccid than flavoursome.

“That’s why you don’t pick grapes in the rain. So when someone goes and plunks a couple of ice cubes into a glass of something you’ve sweated over, it’s sort of soul-destroying.”

Calling the act a breach of etiquette, however, is probably going a bit far.

“That’s reserved for things like serving good wine in stumpy little glasses or mixing your wine with cola,” Lorkin says.

“But if a person has already bought the wine, now they own it, they can do what they want with it and sensitive petals like me should get over ourselves and go back to fretting, dwelling and agonising over more important issues. Like when did it become ok to only put one space after a full stop? And why do people use the word ‘the’ before saying ‘Hawke’s Bay’?”

If you still want to enjoy a nice, icy wine without the judgemental stares or dilluted drink, Lorkin suggests using “some whisky rocks or plastic ice cubes and keep them in your freezer. Pop those in your glass for an instant chill without wateriness.”

“They’re an excellent Christmas gift too.”