Friends are just arriving to your home and you forgot to put those refreshing whites in the fridge, what to do?? Don’t sweat it, we have the quickest and most effective solutions to chill those white wines for you.

Let’s get this out of the way first… there is no magic way to chill your white wine to proper serving temperature in a matter of a few minutes. There, I said it. With that out of the way, there are legitimate ways to increase the rate at which wine cools down. After endless hours of testing and examination, here is what rendered the best overall results.

Ice & Saltwater in a Bucket – This is the best, and safest, solution to cool your wine bottle in a jif. Place your bottle(s) in a metal bucket, or even a lobster pot, with some space between the bottles if you are cooling down more than one. Then fill the bucket with ice so it reaches about half way up the bottles. Next, pour in a saltwater solution so it goes up to bottlenecks without being fully submerged. The salt lowers the freezing point of water which again, can save precious minutes in getting those white wines chilled down to proper serving temps.

* Additional Tip – Give it a stir! The more liquid in the bottle that comes in closer contact with the ice water the quicker that wine will chill out.

Wrap it and Freeze It – Popping a bottle in the freezer is the way the majority of wine drinkers chill down wine fast, mostly because it works. However if you grab a few paper towels, or a cheese cloth, and run them under cold water and wrap them around the bottle before you place it in the freezer, it can lower the cooling time. Just be sure to tell Alexa to set a timer for 15 minutes, as if you leave it in there too long you could come back to a bottle with a cork popped out and one messy freezer.

Rock It – If you don’t need to chill down the entire bottle and can work with a by the glass solution then arctic rocks, or granite chilling stones, may be the quickest way to cool things down. Just pull a few out of your freezer and drop them (carefully) into your glass. They will take the wine temps down in a minute or less and won’t dilute your wine like ice or potentially impart any flavors like the frozen grape method. Once the wine comes down to your desired temp just remove the rocks with a spoon and enjoy a perfectly chilled glass of your favorite summer white!