Friday, November 30, 2007

A cool idea for a slow sipper

A wine cellar is great for storing uopened wines at the correct temperature and humidity. Chilling an opened bottle, either by using a bucket of ice, a fancy gadget with a temperature monitor, or the plain old fridge all works well. What about the wine in your glass then? How would you keep it within the correct temperature range for drinking?

It is great to start your glass at the correct drinking temperature and finish it within 5 degree Fahrenheit so that the 'correct' aroma and texture can be experienced. However, what if you drink wine outdoor in the summer; or sip a glass that lasts for two hours?

This dilemma troubled me during the past Thanksgiving holiday when I wanted to sip 1 glass of Pinot and Rioja each during a 3 hour dinner. By the time I tasted the last drop in the glass, the wines become so warm that they actually tasted horrible.

So today I performed a quick search and found these plastic reusable ice cubes. Seems like it can be useful in chilling down the wine in the glass once it start to turn warm.

These look like a great idea for holiday parties too. Put one of this flashing cube in your favorite beverage, you will have an instant sparkler.

If this is a crazy idea, please let me know how I can safely and economically keep a glass of wine cool for more than 15 minutes without constantly reaching for that bottle in the fridge.

1 comment:

David McDuff said...

I dunno, Andrew. I'm not too keen on the idea of floating plastic thingies in a glass of wine. You may want to try tasting one first. Seriously, if you can taste it when it sits in your mouth, it's going to impart some kind of flavor to the wine in which it's plunked.

My trick for keeping wines from getting too warm when served inside is to keep my house inhumanly chilly, at least in the wintertime. As for summertime al fresco sipping? Just drink faster, my friend. Or give beer a chance.

cheers,
David
McDuff's Food & Wine Trail