For wine lovers, summer can be a major challenge. It can be difficult to keep wine at the ideal tasting temperature. As with any problem, keeping wine cool requires the right tools and know-how. Here are our favorite methods and tips.
The good old refrigerator to keep wine cool
It may seem obvious, but your refrigerator is your wine’s best friend in the summer. Yes, even for reds. If the room temperature is around 21ºC, put the bottle in the fridge for 15 minutes before serving to bring it to a more comfortable 18ºC. If your red is warmer (24ºC), give it half an hour.
Whites and rosés will need a solid hour to reach a good serving temperature of about 10ºC. If you like your wine very cold (6ºC), two hours in the refrigerator before serving should do the trick.
The Ice bucket
If you are serious about wine, you must have an ice bucket. And if you don’t have one, you can also use a bucket from your garage. We also have a solution in case you don’t have ice: even a bucket of cold water will keep your wine at a low temperature for a while. Little tip: add salt to allow the ice to reach a lower temperature and cool your wine faster.
Isothermal bag
The insulated bag around the bottle will keep your wine cool, but will not cool a hot wine as drastically as other solutions.
Automatic wine coolers
Automatic wine coolers are the sophisticated versions of ice buckets. They look like small bucket-shaped refrigerators, usually holding one or two bottles. These can be expensive, but they allow you to precisely control the temperature of your bottle of wine.
Cooling spouts
If you want to be on the cutting edge of cooling, there have been innovations in recent years, especially in pouring spouts. Now, many manufacturers offer systems that can actually cool your wine instantly while you pour.
Unusual ice cubes
To keep your wine fresh without diluting or blending it, you can use frozen grapes. It’s fun and it makes the grapes taste good too. However, we don’t recommend using them on expensive wines, but it’s a good idea for your easy drinking summer wines.
Put your wine in the freezer
Some say it’s a dangerous thing to do, but it’s fine as long as you control the time the wine spends there. Frozen wine is certainly horrible, but chilling it in the freezer is fine. Use a timer: 15 minutes for gentle cooling and have your wine chilled, half an hour for more results.
It’s not the most recommended thing to do on great bottles either, but it’s fine for table wines.
But of course, to be truly prepared all summer long, always keep a bottle of wine chilled at home. Keep a bottle of white, a bottle of rosé, and don’t forget the bubbly!
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