Brandon Vallorani On How To Chill Wine In A Pinch

How To Chill Wine

Brandon Vallorani

Ever felt that panic when your guests arrive and you realize you forgot to put the wine in the fridge to chill before they got there? There are ways around this crisis to chill a bottle of wine quickly so that your guests don’t have to wait.

There is the age old trick of putting the bottle in the freezer, but even that will take about half an hour to chill your wine. Here are some other suggestions…

1. Try always keeping a

bunch of grapes in your

freezer. If you have a room

temperature bottle, pop a

few grapes into each glass

before filling them with

wine. Each glass will be

perfectly chilled in three

minutes and the grapes

won’t dilute the wine the

way that an ice cube

would. Plus, it will look

rather decorative and

festive!

2. Fill a large bowl with

lots of ice and water. If

you submerge the bottle

in the mixture, it should

be chilled within fifteen

minutes. To aid in this

process, try adding salt

into the tub of water.

Salt water freezes at a

lower temperature than

non-salt water so your

wine will chill faster.

3. If you must use the

freezer method, speed it

up by wrapping the

bottle in a wet paper

towel. This will cut the

time that the bottle

needs in the freezer in

half, to fifteen minutes.

4. You could also try

putting a clean cold

pack or freezer pack

into a pitcher and

pouring the wine over it.

Swirling the wine

around in a pitcher with

the cold pack should

bring it down by ten

degrees every fifteen

minutes.

5. There is also a

specialized freezer pack

called Corkcicle. These

were designed as a

wine stopper to keep

the wine chilled after

you open it and as you

are drinking, but can be

effective to chill wine

slightly, if you always

have one ready in your

freezer.

So never fear if your wine isn’t chilled--there are many options to save you once your guests arrive!