If lifting the cork from a 50-year-old Port and decanting it to avoid the sediment at the bottom of the bottle ranks somewhere near the top of the oenological skill set, setting up an ice bucket properly should at the bottom of the list. Yet so often, even wine professionals get it wrong.
Imagine that it’s a hot and sunny day at a seaside restaurant. You review the wine list and find a favorite, but unusual, French rosé, perhaps a Bellet or a Cassis, something floral and cool in the summer heat. The sommelier brings the bottle and says that it hasn’t been chilled, but he will bring an ice bucket and it will be cold and ready to drink in a few minutes. He pours a sample in your glass and the wine is excellent but nowhere near the correct temperature. He places the bottle in the ice bucket. He returns after a few minutes to pour, and the wine is warmer than when he first brought it. How can that be?
The answer is that the ice bucket should really be called an ice and water bucket. It won’t chill the wine unless it is filled with ice and water.
There are two reasons why an ice bucket filled only with ice does not work.
First, a bottle can’t sink down into the ice and will ride on top until a substantial amount of the ice melts. In the case of our rosé on a hot day, most of the bottle is away from the ice and continues to be exposed to the summer sun and heat. Since cold air sinks, the ice will have little chilling effect to the bottle resting on top.
The second reason is that water is a much better thermal conductor than air, as any cold-water swimmer knows. Fill a bucket with ice cubes and it will still be about 75% air, which does not do a good job of cooling by thermal transfer. But fill a bucket with ice and water, let the bottle to sink into the bucket, and the cold water will quickly chill the wine.
What is the right way to chill a bottle of wine in an ice bucket? Fill the bucket with ice about two thirds to the top. Add cold water to the top of the ice. Plunge the bottle into the ice and water, which will reach to just below the neck of the bottle. Wait a few minutes and the job will be done.
A simple but critical skill for the enjoyment of wine in this hot and humid summer.
Well done! Though this will not stop me from installing a euro cave installed in the house!
Love this! What a perfect short-form piece that will have application for all wine-drinking readers!