Most of the time, I prefer to drink red wine in room temperature. However, on really hot evenings or when I’m having an outdoor dinner with friends in my backyard, I make sure my wines are perfectly chilled and are already in the chiller the night before.
There are times though when I get so caught up with this thing called life, that I forget to do this. So, if you’re in the same situation and would like to chill your dry white wine fast, we’ve got just the techniques for you.
Several Ways You Can Chill Wine Quickly
A quick search on Google and you’ll get lots of suggestions, from reasonable to downright impossible. Here are the top suggestions:
1. Place the bottle of wine in a metal bucket that contains ice and salt.
3. Fit the metal ice bucket with an immersion circulator set to 7C (45F)
4. Pour the wine into a zip lock bag and put in the freezer.
5. Wrap the bottle in a damp cloth and place inside the freezer.
I’ve tried the abovementioned techniques and here are the results:
1.The wine bottle temperature reached 45F in 5 minutes for the bottle that was placed in a metal bucket with salt and ice.
2. The temperature reached 45F in 15 minutes for the bottle that was placed in a metal bucket with ice only.
3. It took 15 minutes as well for the bottle to reach 45F when we placed it inside the ice-filled bucket with an immersion circulator.
4. The wine that was poured into a zip lock bag and placed in the freezer took 50 minutes to reach 45F.
5. And lastly, the wine that was wrapped in a damp cloth and placed in the freezer took forever to reach 45F.
For those who do not have an ice bucket or any large insulated container, you can put your wine in the freezer instead.
Verdict
Based on the findings, it’s easy to see which technique can cool wine fast. While the wine bottles that were placed in the freezer to at least an hour to reach 45F, agitating the bottle in a salted ice bath took only 5 minutes.
The ice bath won’t drop below 0 degree Celsius (32F) which is the freezing point of water. But with salt, you can do that which means you can make your wine cold in no time. Salt lowers the freezing point of water and still keep it liquid. You need to spread the salt throughout the water and not just put it in one spot. And then make sure to constantly spin or stir the bottle as that makes it work faster than just immersing it in salted ice bath (this takes 15 minutes instead of just 5 minutes).
A Sous Vide Machine may seem like an ideal equipment to help chill a bottle of wine but actually while a circulator can provide constant agitation it does not have the ability to make water cold.
Perfectly chilled wine might be something you can easily order when you’re dining at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse but not something you can always expect in your own home especially if you like to drink on a whim. Next time you have friends coming over, place a few wine bottles in the chiller a day before. But in case you forget, now you know how you can chill your wine fast!
