Summer’s Here -Wine Chilling Tips

With the arrival of summer, we think it’s a good time to look at some wine cooling tips and check out some of the products we supply here at Winelover.ie to help you achieve the perfect temperature and taste.

First things first. Temperature can and will affect taste, so achieving the correct temperature, or as close to it as possible will help you to bring out the best flavours and aromas and to serve the wine in as close a condition as possible to how the winemaker envisioned it. Serve the wine too hot and the alcohol tends to be over emphasised and the resulting taste can seem flat. While it is common practice to chill white wines before serving, during an Irish summer where temperatures can, albeit infrequently, hit the low to mid twenties. Hence serving red wine at room temperature can result in it being up to 10°C over the ideal.

Depending on the variety, Red Wine should be served between 12 – 18°C. White Wine should be served between 8-12°C and Sparkling Wines and Champagne should be served between 5-7°C.

Dedicated wine fridges or coolers are becoming more common and affordable and can be a huge help in achieving the correct temperature. However they are not essential and we provide solutions for both cooling and maintaining wine at the right temperature.

The first step is to take the current temperature of the wine. The Vacu Vin Snap Thermometer is perfect for this. Just snap it onto the bottle like a bracelet and it will give you the temperature of the wine immediately. (Available for €15 from the Winelover Store. Click Here.

Wine Cooling Solutions

The Active Wine Cooler by Vacu Vin holds a re-usable cooling element that can chill a bottle within minutes and keep it cool for hours. Because the cooler does not use ice, your bottle won’t get wet and the label will stay intact. Store the cooling element flat in the freezer so they are always ready to go. Available for €24 from Winelover.ie. Click Here.

The Vacu Vin Active Wine Cooling Carafe is another great solution for White Wine lovers. The stylish tabletop cooler incorporates two active cooling elements, making it ideal for chilling. Store the cooling elements in the freezer and insert them into the carafe base when you want to use it. Drinks will be cooled in minutes and remain cool for hours. €35 from Winelover.ie. Click Here.

Cooling Sleeves are another solution and we offer a number of variations on Winelover.ie. Among them, the Le Creuset Cooling Sleeve consistently achieves excellent reviews among users. Simply keep it in the freezer until required and it will do a great job of quickly cooling wine, prosecco and champagne bottles to the correct temperature and maintaining it there. Available for €24 from Winelover.ie. Click Here.

Last but not least, the traditional Ice Bucket remains a popular self explanatory solution but it does require a ready supply of ice. They are however, emeintly stylish and add a degree of class to any table. €28 from Winelover.ie. Click Here.

We also offer a number of solutions to maintain wine at the right temperature including the Wine Chiller Pourer and the Double Skin Bottle Insulator.

Serving a wine too cold can also be detrimental to the wine’s taste. The simple solution to that is to decant the wine and it will raise the temperature a few degrees. For our range of wine decanters Click Here.