As a southern girl, I love a good cold sweet tea. I like my soda (read Dr. Pepper) at room temperature for some reason, but everything else (tea, lemonade, juice, even water) should be ice cold (and with more than one ice cube).
For the most part reds are not served chilled, although there are a few, and hopefully the label will tell you. Which leaves the whites and rosés to be chilled, along with the bubbly.
I was shocked the first time I saw someone drop an ice cube into a glass of white wine. And I mean, truly shocked – as in I could hear my mother’s voice in my head going “we are not a fly trap, close your mouth dear.”
I know it can be hard to get wine cold sometimes and I knew about popping a bottle into the freezer for a few (I’ve done that when a friend calls and says they are on their way over) but I didn’t know about this little trick I found online recently.
The fastest way to chill a bottle is to submerge it in an ice bucket filled with salted ice water for 10 to 15 minutes, turning the bottle in the water occasionally. (Skip the agitating if you’re dealing with bubbly as you might cause a wine eruption.)
This makes total sense to me. After all, rock salt and ice in the bucket were required for the clamp on ice cream freezer to work. Why not speed up the chilling process of wine with the same concept. Although, I do caution you from using salted ice water in your sterling or silverplate ice buckets, since as you know, salt can corrode the silver. So, hopefully you have a glass ice bucket too – or haul out the hideous plastic one your aunt gave you because it has your school logo on it and she thought you’d “just love it for tailgating.”
Final Thoughts
Hopefully none of your friends are tacky enough to ask for an ice cube for their wine. But if they are, offer then one of the re-usable plastic, glass or rock one so as to not add whatever is in the water to the wine and dilute it. Afterall, unless you make ice cubes out of purified water, the ice maker on the fridge is going to use city water, which means in June, they will smell like algae as the lakes turn over and do you really want that ruining the Pinot Grigio your serving? Then keep in mind for the next time you have these friends over and buy a cheaper white wine if they are going to insist on using ice.
