How do you chill wine quickly?

Put the bottle in a bucket half filled with water and ice, not with ice alone.

For this method the Comité Champagne allows 20 to 30 minutes before pouring. Water fits closely all around the glass, whereas ice touches the bottle in only a few places. Make sure the bottle stands submerged up to the neck, otherwise the top stays warm.

Water carries heat away faster than air, because it starts moving around the bottle and takes the heat with it.

The Institute of Physics describes the transport of heat by a moving liquid or a moving gas as convection, and calls conduction through still water slow by comparison. In a freezer the air around the bottle is almost still. A bucket of water therefore works faster, even though the freezer is colder. A forgotten bottle in the freezer can also freeze and burst.

White wine, rosé, sparkling wine and champagne go on the table cold, while red wine should be a good deal less cold.

For champagne, the Comité Champagne recommends 8 to 10 degrees. Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 lays down which wines are called sparkling and which requirements they meet. A wine that is too cold warms up in the glass; a wine that is too warm no longer cools down in the glass. So rather pour it slightly too cold than too warm.

Serving cold is something different from storing cold: the Australian Wine Research Institute advises 15 to 20 degrees for storage, cool and dry.

Prolonged exposure above 25 degrees or brief exposure above 40 degrees damages the wine, the same institute reports. At 30 degrees, off-flavours develop after twelve months of storage. Chilling just before pouring is therefore fine; keeping a bottle for months in a warm kitchen is not.

Wrap a wet tea towel around the bottle and put it in the refrigerator, so that water carries the heat away instead of still air.

Het effect blijft kleiner dan bij een emmer met water en ijs, omdat er minder water tegen het glas zit. Leg de fles in de koelkast neer in plaats van rechtop, dan raakt meer glas de koude plank. Reken hoe dan ook op meer tijd dan de 20 tot 30 minuten van de emmer. Alcohol verkopen wij niet aan wie jonger is dan achttien: NIX18.