You come home from a tough day at work craving a glass of crisp white wine, only to realise you forgot to put a bottle in the refrigerator. Or unexpected company arrives and you want to serve something more special than what you have at the ready.
Temperature is all subject to your personal taste, in truth. Chilling a wine quickly to your preferred temperature can be tricky. Armed with my thermometer and a few wine gadgets, I began to test.
A wine at room temperature clocked in at 67 degrees. (It was a cool evening, and we had the windows open.) A bottle straight from the refrigerator (who knows when I put it there) was at 40 degrees. After 20 minutes on the counter, the wine registered 46 degrees - in the optimal range for "ordinary" whites, according to Larousse.
I also put two bottles in the freezer, one wrapped in a wet dish towel. After 20 minutes, the wine in the towel-wrapped bottle was 63 degrees, while the wine in the unwrapped bottle was 58 degrees. The wet towel insulated the bottle and inhibited it from cooling. Based on that, my advice: Don't waste your dish towels.
Vacu Vin, a company that sells rubber stoppers to preserve wines and a pump to create a vacuum in the bottle, markets a gel-pack sleeve to keep in your freezer. The idea is to slip this sleeve over a bottle and wait 20 minutes for the wine to chill. I use this sleeve all the time; it's easy and convenient. The wine I tested was at 57 degrees after 20 minutes in the sleeve - about the same as the bottle in the freezer, without the risk.
I saved the ice bucket for last. Ice and water encourage a temperature exchange. When I tested the temperature of a wine after 20 minutes in an ice bucket, it was at 62 degrees. But, of course, the top of the bottle was not immersed in the bucket. When I poured out a glass and stuck the thermometer back in the bottle, the rest of the wine measured a cool 52 degrees.
So the bucket of ice and water trumps the freezer, the freezer/towel gimmick and the gel sleeve.
Another piece of conventional wisdom tells us to put a bottle of red wine on the door of the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before we drink it, to chill it slightly and bring the wine close to "cellar" temperature. I tested by starting with a wine that was 67 degrees at room temperature. After 20 minutes on the refrigerator door, it was 65 degrees, and after 30 minutes, it was at 63 degrees. At 40 minutes it was at 62 degrees - a good temperature for "great reds," according to Larousse.
Bottom line: Make sure your ice machine is working for your white wines. And keep space open on the door of your refrigerator for your reds.