Ensure your wine is never too cold, never too hot, but just right every time with these ice buckets and wine coolers
It’s true that ice buckets for wine are often associated with fairly indifferent settings: receptions where tooth-chillingly frigid prosecco is on free-flow or picnics paired with icy bottles of Pinot Grigio and rosé. They’re also often used sloppily: how many times have you had to beg your server not to return your bottle of Grand Cru Chablis to the ice bucket just as it’s approaching the right temperature?
But equally how many times have you been served a highly anticipated bottle of red only to have it fall flat in the mouth because it’s too warm? How often have you shown up at a party with a bottle of champagne only to lose half of it as it froths all over the host having warmed up too much while in transit?
Used well, the ice bucket can be a tool to correct (some of) the errors of inappropriate storage temperature or to maintain a good bottle temperature in a sultry climate. Even as we are well into the mild season in Asia, a handsome ice bucket or cooler that helps keep your bottle at a comfortable 10-16ºC is always a useful thing to have on hand and deserves its place in every wine lover’s accessory cabinet. While a spell in the freezer can stand in for an ice bucket, I find it can be harder to time and the consequences of leaving a bottle chilling too long can be disastrous.
However, an ice bucket is only as effective as the person using it––shoving a bottle halfway into a pile of hard frozen ice and expecting it to have an effect suggests you may want to revisit your high school physics. What you need instead is an “ice bath” (a roughly equal mix of ice and water), which will hover around 0ºC and completely envelope the bottle. In these conditions, a room temperature bottle of champagne will reach a good serving temperature in just under 10 minutes, white will need between 5-10 and lighter reds will need no more than 5. A big, chewy red––which should still not be served any warmer than 18ºC––can benefit from a minute or two in the bucket. A double-walled bucket will keep the bath cool for longer and won’t “sweat” as much.
Since the neck of the bottle will invariably remain above the water line, it’s important to remember that the first serving you pour out of the bottle will be warmer than the wine lower down. Gently inverting the bottle to redistribute the heat can help, but I emphasise the word “gentle” (particularly if you’re dealing with champagne or wine that’s at all aged).
Meanwhile, for maintaining a constant temperature once the bottle is open, I prefer a cooler––a narrow container typically made of steel or stone that just fits a bottle of wine––over an ice bucket. Remember that as your bottle empties out, the ice bath will have less liquid to cool and so even a short spell will drop the wine’s temperature too low, leaving it seeming harsh-textured and inexpressive. This is why I tend not to like decanter-chiller combos with an ice bath or pocket, though they work well for beverages like sake. A cooler meanwhile will just slow your wine’s rate of warming enough to keep it pleasant through the course of an evening.
Below, a list of ice buckets and coolers to ensure your wine is never too cold, never too hot, but just right every time: