With the arrival of warmer temperatures and greater availability of movement, it is also time to enjoy some fresh wine outside: on vacation, in the garden, out for a picnic with friends. But how can a good bottle of wine – white, rosé or sparkling – not heat up?
You need the right tools – bucket or icebox – and know some tricks.
The wine bucket: how to use it and how to choose it
The wine ice bucket is not just a nice accessory: it will be indispensable if we want to cool a wine that we want to drink chilled. What if we have some guests at home and we forget to put our prosecco in the fridge? Or if at the last minute we decide to eat in the garden and we need a fresh bottle, but there is only one left inside our beautiful GIUNONE sideboard)… In these cases, the ice bucket is perfect for us.
However, we must always keep in mind that each wine has its ideal temperature: a red should never drop below 14-15 degrees; a white or rosé approximately between 10 and 12 – only the most full-bodied can rise by another two degrees -; sweet bubbles can gladly drop even below 10 degrees.
Finally, the dispute about which material to choose.
The materials available on the market are: metal, stainless steel, glass or plastic. Each of these has its pros and cons: metal is excellent for maintaining a low temperature and in particular if we choose stainless steel, we will also have a very resistant container; glass certainly gives a more chic look to our bucket once brought to the table – but unfortunately it has much lower performance than metal; while plastic can rival glass in look – sharing its disadvantages on temperature – but it is definitely at lower risk of breaking if it falls to the ground.
The trick to quickly cool our wine bucket
There is a practical and very simple way to cool a bottle of wine faster: just add some salt.
How?
First throw a handful of salt on the bottom of the bucket together with some ice cubes; then insert the bottle leaving salt and ice as a “base”; finally add more ice cubes on the sides until the bucket is completely covered; finally add another handful of salt.
Un’alternativa al secchiello del vino: la glacette
For those who already have a good bottle of chilled wine, it is not necessary to use an ice bucket: to maintain the temperature just use the glacette at your fingertips: a double-walled container that isolates the bottle from the outside temperature usually thanks to one or two refreshing elements – which can be removable and are to be frozen in the freezer before using.
Glacettes are also produced in different materials but are mainly found in steel – better for resistance and to avoid the condensation effect – and in transparent acrylic – better for elegance.
Target Point, Italian Ideas