Guests have arrived unexpectedly.
You’d like to share a nice bottle of white wine with them.
But there’s a problem. The only white wine you have on hand is sitting on your wine rack, and it needs to be chilled down a bit prior to opening, pouring and enjoying.
What to do?
You could put the bottle in the freezer for about 10 to 15 minutes, but if your freezer is like mine, there’s barely enough room for what’s in there already, let alone a bottle of wine.
A better option is to grab a bucket — you DO have a Champagne bucket on hand for this type of emergency, don’t you? — and fill it about a third full with ice, and a third full with water.
Then place the bottle in the ice water.
About 5 to 10 minutes later, the wine will be ready to serve.
Remember, the idea is not to make the wine ice cold. The colder a wine is, the less possible it is to taste all of its flavors. Rather, you want the wine to be cool, so it’s both refreshing and flavorful.
Your guests will thank you for it.
