Nick Free
The question
What's the best way to chill wine quickly?
The answer
A bucket of ice water and salt.
Contact with cold water draws away heat many times faster than mere cold air. And adding salt brings down water's freezing point, so the solution will be considerably colder than standard zero-degree ice water. (That's why we sprinkle salt on roads and sidewalks in winter – to melt ice at below-zero temperatures.)
Plant the bottle in a bucket, surround it with ice cubes and a few tablespoons of salt, then fill with water. A bottle of lukewarm red will taste fresher in summer in five to seven minutes; a white will be ready in 12 to 15 minutes.
There's another advantage to the bucket method compared with sticking the bottle in the freezer. You're less likely to forget about it when it's out in the open, as I've learned the hard way many times.
E-mail your wine and spirits questions to Beppi Crosariol. Look for answers to select questions to appear in the Wine & Spirits newsletter and on The Globe and Mail website.