How to swiftly cool your wine

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How to swiftly cool your wine

We give you four tips on how to quickly chill your beer, wine or soft drink.

There’s really no excuse for not noticing that the Danish summer weather has been a tad warmer than last year. Already by 1 July, we officially reached 34 summer days in 2018, which is twice as much as the 17 summer days which all of 2017 had to offer.

With a warm and wonderful summer like this, it can be tricky always having a ready supply of cooled beverages. The supply lines must pick up pace when the demand for nicely tempered rosé or white wine is as ceaseless as is currently the case.

That’s why we’ve found four survival hacks for you and your loved ones here. First, however, you need to learn about the optimal solution which will efficiently put an end to all acute cooling crises.

The ice machines that will make your day as well as your ice

The ideal quick cool-down always involves ice cubes. If the bags and trays in your freezer are unable to keep up, you may be dreaming about an ice machine.

Normally, a machine like that is hard to find at a humane price level, and we’ve been searching long and hard for an ice machine at a competitive price.

And just now we’ve added a machine to our line-up which meets every demand: fast production, good capacity and a great price.

Caso makes it, and you can check out this scrumptious ice maker here.

You’re asking on behalf of a friend

Let’s briefly imagine that we, hypothetically, have got the unthinkable and imagined situation on our hands that someone you know has fallen a bit short on equipment.

Since no one leaves a friend in the lurch, we’re naturally happy to help by providing a couple of tips from the vinous rule book.

If your friend needs an equipment upgrade, you’re always welcome to send him along to us. We’ll do our very best to make sure that everyone’s pleased.

Cooling a bottle with a newspaper

Tip #1: A wet Sunday paper 

Make a newspaper wet and wrap it around your wine bottle. Contrary to what you might think, you should now place it directly in the sun which will heat the paper. The energy needed for the evaporation will make the temperature within the bottle drop. After about half an hour your bottle will be chilled.

You could also be a well-prepared scout and keep a wine cooler bag at the ready in your freezer. Ready to strap around any bottle, no matter if it’s a tall and slim Alsace wine or a short and chubby champagne bottle.

Cool down wine quickly with ice water with salt

Tip #2: A bucket of salt water

Then there’s the super efficient version where you’ve got a big bucket of ice but no time. Pour water, ice cubes and salt in a good bucket while stirring. And in goes the bottle.

Turn it (the bottle that is) a bit around its own axis without shaking it for a minute or two.

The salt will make the ice melt, and the evaporation energy will lower the temperature within the bottle. In addition, salt water has got a lower melting point than fresh water. You’ve now got yourself a cool bottle within two or three minutes. The mixture ratio is something like two tablespoons of salt to one tray of ice cubes and half a litre of water.

You need a good bucket for this. We’ve got a lot of nice-looking buckets here. What about this king size ice bucket where you can fit more than one bottle?

Cooling a bottle of wine with a wet sock

Tip #3: A storm in a sock

The third trick is perfect for Danish weather. If it’s windy, and it most often is, you can try hanging a bottle in a wet sock. The more wind, the sooner a well-chilled bottle. It takes about half an hour, depending on the weather.

The right size of sock is your responsibility, but what about a sock or two tailor-made for a bottle?

They’re for blind tasting. And this is definitely something you should try out because there’s a lot to learn from tasting without knowing the label beforehand. I’ve written a little article about how to throw a good wine tasting.

Dig out your own fridge

Tip #4: Cellar-cool the authentic way

Finally, there’s the old-school method. Dig an absolutely analogue hole about half a metre deep, and you’ve got yourself a stable temperature of about 12 degrees Celsius. If you go down one metre, it’ll be five degrees all year round. Now it’s turning into a bit of a project, right?

We’re getting near a real wine cellar. And wine cellars, we think, are the coolest thing on Earth, purely because they enable you to store your wine at the perfect temperature.

After two hours half a metre down and covered with soil, your bottles will be ready for serving.

If you haven’t got the time to first dig a hole and then wait for two hours, our wine cooler sticks with built-in freezing elements for sticking into the bottle itself are bound to help you out. And the freezing element has cleverly been linked to a non-drip spout. Now, is that cool or what?

How to cool wine in your freezer

You can use your freezer, but be careful. A great and efficient trick to chill wine quickly is to wrap the bottle in a wet tea towel before sticking it in the freezer. After about ten minutes your bottle is nicely chilled, but you need to keep an eye on it.

The minus 18 degrees Celsius of a freezer is too cold for a bottle of wine left in there. One rule of thumb is that half a wine’s alcohol percentage corresponds roughly to the wine’s freezing point in minus degrees, so that a bottle of wine with an alcohol percentage of 13 will freeze at minus 6,5 degrees. When freezing wine too hard, you run the risk of the cork being pushed out so that your freezer fills with vinous slush-ice mixed with pieces of broken glass.

Make sure to use a timer, for instance on your phone, to keep track of time.

Keep (wine) cool

So, what started out being a luxury problem in the summer heat has now become a luxury in the summer heat without problems.

We’ve ended up with a nice survival kit for those of us who want to make sure that our guests don’t go thirsty in the heat.

Six great tips in total for swiftly chilling your wine, beer or soft drink have thus been delivered.

The very best thing would of course be to have a wine fridge with two temperature zones. A fridge just filled with beverages at the perfect serving temperature.

But you already knew that, didn’t you?

Have a great summer.

 

 

 

 

Michael Kahr Jørgensen

Sommelier

 


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