Questions Uncorked

Oct 6, 2008

Hi Greg,
Thanks for your question – it is a very interesting one. A few years ago, I received one of those wine chillers that is supposed to automatically chill your wine to the right temperature. I was excited to try it out, but after testing out several wines, I have to admit that I was sorely disappointed by the little gizmo’s ability to quickly get my wine to the right temp. Maybe my particular wine chiller was broken, but there are actually some other easier and cheaper ways to chill a bottle of wine efficiently.

If this is a white wine that has been at room temperature, the easiest method is to put your wine in the freezer for 30 to 45 minutes. If it is a red wine, then chilling it for 15 minutes in your fridge should be fine. If you use your freezer though, you should think about setting a timer to remind yourself that your wine is in the freezer, as leaving it there for an extended time is a very very bad idea. (Just a hint, but frozen wine will push a cork out and wine slush can be hard to clean up…) And you also want to make sure that you don’t over-chill your wine in your freezer. So this technique works best when you have a white wine that is at room temperature that you need to chill quickly.

The second technique is to fill a bucket with a mixture of ice and water and add in a bit of salt. (While chemistry was never my strength in high school, I believe that the salt and the water lower the freezing point of the ice meaning that the temperature in a bucket of ice, water and salt would be lower than just a bucket of ice alone.) You should be able to quickly chill a bottle of white in about 15 minutes or so. If presentation matters to you though, you just might think about wiping the bottle off after you chill it in your ice bucket.

Enjoy!