HOW TO: chill wine in five minutes
With the northeast suffering through the second vicious heat wave of the month, the question a the forefront of the heat-addled brains of us wine geeks is: how can I chill that wine bottle the fastest?
Fast: Contrary to popular thinking, sticking it in the freezer is not the fastest way to chill wine. There’s simply too much air in the freezer; air doesn’t wick heat away as fast as water.
Faster: Add a gel sleeve to the wine bottle in the freezer. Getting something cold touching the bottle transfers the cold to the wine faster.
Fastest: Get a bucket and fill it about half full of ice. Then add the coldest water you can get from the tap, filling the bucket to about 3/4 full. Now you have something approximating the ice floes of the Arctic–in fact, add salt to the water to decrease the liquid range of the water to below 32 degrees. Submerge the bottle in the bucket. Stir or swirl for fastest results.
Related: “Drew Barrymore: the ladiez like ice in their wine”
On July 18th, 2013 at 8:34 am ,PhilippeN wrote:
Tyler, love the fact that the wines are all White Bordeaux! You’ve got me thinking of oysters now ….
On July 18th, 2013 at 9:54 am ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Glad you like it! Given the low interest in Bordeaux wines, it was the cheapest stock photo I could buy….Just kidding! It’s my photo from a few years ago…Enjoy those oysters.
On July 18th, 2013 at 11:57 am ,Liz wrote:
Thanks for the tip! Is that a bottle of Château Suduiraut?
On July 19th, 2013 at 2:25 am ,Ja wrote:
Fastest way is ice + water + salt. Simple middle school physics. As salt concentration increases, freezing point of the water (or saline solution) decreass, resulting in colder water
On July 19th, 2013 at 2:40 am ,Patrick wrote:
We used to chill beer this way for quite a while, but for wine, we invested in a small wine chiller now. Great for having a few whites on hand.
-Patrick
On July 19th, 2013 at 7:42 am ,Dr. Vino wrote:
@ Liz – yes, Suduiraut!
On July 19th, 2013 at 2:20 pm ,Ciao wrote:
HAhahahaha.
Salt does not make water, or ice, colder. It decreases the point at which water will turn from liquid to solid. You still need something to extract heat from the water. Salt doesn’t do that. Refrigeration does that. And both ice and salted water can both be colder than 32°, having nothing to do with salt.
Adding salt to the water in your ice bucket *will not* make your wine colder or make it get colder faster.
On July 19th, 2013 at 7:41 pm ,Fran wrote:
In the winter we put the bottle(s) out in the snow, super fast way to chill them.
On July 20th, 2013 at 3:30 am ,Hack Of The Day: How To Chill Wine In Five Minutes (Or Less) wrote:
[…] it to Dr. Vino, master of all that is wine, to post the perfect companion to a brutally hot summer night. Don't stick that bottle in the freezer "for a sec." You can and will forget it's […]
On July 22nd, 2013 at 1:57 am ,Ja wrote:
@Ciao: wrong. It is called “freezing point depression.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freezing-point_depression
On July 22nd, 2013 at 2:59 pm ,Ashley wrote:
Excellent tips – thank you!
On July 24th, 2013 at 8:01 am ,Good Reads Wednesday « Artisan Family of Wines wrote:
[…] HOW TO: chill wine in five minutes […]
On August 10th, 2013 at 6:42 am ,Lightweight Wine Bottles versus Heavyweight Wine Bottles wrote:
[…] HOW TO: chill wine in five minutes […]
On August 13th, 2013 at 8:21 am ,Ciao wrote:
Read the Wiki thing again. It makes the point at which water becomes ice colder. It doesn’t make ice that’s already ice colder. Or water colder, or anything else magical.
On August 28th, 2013 at 10:16 am ,Louisa Hargrave wrote:
If you wrap a bottle in wet paper towel or a wet cloth and put it in the freezer, it chills quickly because as the fan in the freezer pulls air over the wet cloth and evaporates the moisture, it also draws heat out of the bottle. Evaporation is a cooling process.
This is a quick method that doesn’t use up your supply of ice or get water all over your counter top.