The ice bucket technique
Plunging your bottle into a container filled with an equal amount of water and ice is the most effective technique for cooling your wine, the Norman chemist Voyer advances. It is possible to accelerate cooling by adding 500 grams of salt to your bucket. “Salt lowers the fusion temperature of the ice,” explains the expert. It makes the environment lower than zero Celsius. So, in less than 30 minutes, the whites, sparkling and rosés will be ready to be served. To reduce the waiting time, he also recommends regularly waving the bottle in the ice bucket, because the liquid in contact with the wall cools faster. Another tip: the Sommellerie professor of the Institut de Tourisme et d’Hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ) Lianne Castravelli suggests returning the bottle upside down before removing the cap. “It allows you to transport the cold wine up which is usually overwhelmed,” she advises. As for red wine, contrary to preconceived ideas, it does not use room temperature, and even less in summer. A few minutes in a bucket with cold water can keep it cool.
Dare the freezer
Winner of the competition for the best sommelier of the Americas in 2025, Joris Gutierrez Garcia applies a simple rule to serve his wine at the right temperature: he places his reds in the refrigerator beforehand and spells them about twenty minutes before opening them. For whites and rosés, it puts them for 20 minutes in the fridge before tasting them. If this waiting time is too long, it is possible to speed up the process by placing the bottle in the freezer. The sommelier, however, recommends adjusting an alarm so as not to forget it. “She could freeze and it would spoil the product,” he said. An alarm of 10 to 15 minutes are activated for whites and between 5 and 10 minutes for red. According to the Norman Voyer chemist, the technique of wrapping a wet towel around the bottle placed in the freezer is not effective. “It’s useless!” he assures. It just makes the wine of the cold and it slows down the cooling. It rather recommends placing the bottle in the horizontal position in the freezer to increase the contact between the glass and the cold surface and decrease the waiting time.
Change the container wine
Joris Gutierrez Garcia is rarely in a hurry to cool a wine. But when a customer commands a bottle at the club hunting and fishing in Montreal and it is not at the right temperature, it pours the wine in a carafe before placing it in an ice bucket or in the refrigerator. “Since the glass of the carafe is finer than that of the bottle, it goes faster,” he explains. At home, it is also possible to pour a small amount of wine into a drink, then put it in the fridge for a few minutes. You can then taste your aperitif while waiting for the rest of the bottle to cool.
On the rocks ?
Considered a sacrilege by purists, adding ice in your wine is a common practice on social networks and more and more widespread in the south of France. This way of doing things does not shock the best sommelier of the Americas. “It dilutes and it distorts the wine in the same way as it is done by adding water to prepare a Spritzer, or blackcurrant liquor for a Kir,” says Joris Gutierrez Garcia. I don’t do it, but I encourage people to drink wine as they want. To cool without diluting, there are stone or stainless steel cubes that keep in the freezer. Just place them in your glass and pour your wine so that it is fresh in a few minutes.