Can I put some ice cubes in my wine?
In this article, you will learn why people put ice in their wine and why you should not do it. Want to cool your wine? Then what is the best way? This article will suggest some alternative ways to use if you want to cool your wine.
The article will cover these topics:
- A story of ice and wine
- Hot wine is a nightmare!
- Why do people put ice in their wine?
- Better ways to chill your wine
He made sure nobody could see him and then he sneaked into the wine store around the corner. He had always passed this wine store but had never bought any single bottle of wine there. He entered suspiciously and looked at all the various pretty bottles on the shelves. The assistant strode towards him behind the counter and smiled at him. He didn’t want to waste time so he just pointed at a random bottle of wine, bought it, put it in a dark-color plastic bag, and quickly left the shop. He didn’t want anyone to see him there. In fact, he was invited to a wine-tasting party by his girlfriend the next weekend and he had to accept it; only that, he had never drunk wine and it was the first time he was invited to such a party; naturally, he didn’t want to embarrass himself or his girlfriend so today was the rehearsal day. He was actually an obsessed guy and he never did anything spontaneously; he even practiced the sentences he wanted to tell everyone including his girlfriend.
He opened the door and entered his apartment. He then quickly put the bottle on the coffee table and brought a glass from the kitchen. He sat down and picked up the bottle and tried to open it by the corkscrew the assistant at the shop had sold him. He didn’t exactly know how to do it but he almost spent around half an hour and finally managed to uncork the bottle; not mentioning the fact that half the cork fell into his bottle. He sighed with relief and poured some wine in the glass. He looked at the glass hesitantly and sipped at it; it was too hot; for a moment, he wondered how wine-drinkers drink such a hot drink. He grimaced at the taste and put the glass down wondering how he could put up with such taste at the party. He sat down for a while and then thought of a brilliant idea. He rushed to the refrigerator and took out some ice cubes and brought it to the table. He had to taste this wine one way or another. He slid a few ice cubes into the glass and swirled them in the glass, looking satisfied at the brilliant idea that had sprung up in his mind.
He was looking at the glass when his phone rang; it was Katie. He thought she was at the door for a second and put down the glass hastily and got up as if he wanted to open the door and face her. He would’ve felt embarrassed in front of her for drinking wine alone at home; it took him a few moments to realize it was only the phone and he felt embarrassed one more time.
“Hello, darling. Yeah. I was just. Um. I was just tidying up. You know, the whole place is a mess” it was now that he came to his senses and realized she hadn’t even said a word yet.
“Oh, how’re you doing? At work?”
The conversation went on for about 10 minutes and when he hung up and got back to the table most of the ice cubes had already melted. He remembered why he’d put the ice in the drink and looked happy. He put the glass to his lips and chugged it at one go. He was halfway through the glass that he felt he was having the worst drink in the world; a mixture of some haphazard fruit tones but too faint to be felt, along with some tasteless water that wasn’t even water. He swallowed half of the drink and spat the rest on the floor! “Yuk!” he shook his head fast in disgust and put the glass back down on the table. The only thought on his mind now was how he could put up with such a drink at the party.
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Hot wine is a nightmare!
There is a famous saying that says wine is best served at ‘room temperature’. However, this room temperature could become a vague concept; what kind of room temperature? Well, actually, the concept is not that vague either; the famous ‘room temperature’ is probably somewhere around 77˚F (25˚C), which is a good temperature for the wine to be drunk. And if you drink wine, you will definitely know that at this temperature, the wine tastes bests and it reveals its true taste and its powerful fruit tones and aromas. You will know for sure what I mean if you have drunk very hot wine; it tastes like crap and it will put you off drinking any kind of liquor for the rest of your life; and I assure you, it is terrible, I have tasted it!
All true, yes, hot wine is a horrible thing to drink but what can you do about it? The way is definitely not to add some ice cubes in it; all wine-drinkers will disagree with you on this; it is something strongly frowned upon wherever you mention it; but why do some people insist on slotting some ice cubes in their wine?
Well, the answer is clear; they want to chill their wine; the wine is hot, or maybe they prefer to have their wine a bit more chilled. Well, After all, the main point of drinking wine is to be happier, so everyone is free to do whatever they want with their wine, whether it be chilling it, heating it, or mixing it with anything they wish. However, a question arises here; that as the main purpose of drinking wine is to enjoy, does it matter if what we are doing with our wine could make the taste worse? Well, what most of the wine connoisseurs believe is that it does; it does matter what we are doing to our wine is improving or worsening its taste. There are a lot of cocktails made from wine, there are all sorts of things people mix with their wine, and most of them are believed to improve the taste, but ask a wine-drinker and they will definitely tell you that adding ice cubes is not one of them. The ice cubes might chill your wine but you should remember that ice is chilling your wine because it is melting; it takes the heat from the wine and chills it, but it melts and dilutes the drink, ruining the taste.
On the other hand, there are those who add ice cubes to their wine to avoid adding water to it! They are aware of the fact that water dilutes the drink and ruins its taste so they add ice instead; however, unless you drink the glass super-fast, the ice is going to melt and dissolve in wine and therefore dilute it again; in fact, ice is basically water, isn’t it? Well, it was a needless point to mention but I guess some need to be reminded of that.
As bad as it is and as much as it is advised not to add ice to the wine, there are people who do it, and there is nothing you can do about it; and you shouldn’t. They enjoy it and that’s what wine is all about. I have even heard of Mediterranean restaurants that serve some varieties of wine with ice; well, it has apparently become a trend in some places. However, if you add ice to chill the wine, I believe there are better ways to do it. There are ways you can chill your wine and at the same time don’t have to drink a diluted wine that has lost its fruit tones and original taste.
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Refrigerate your wine
Although it is not very common to refrigerate wine, it is not a bad idea to do it when your wine is super-hot. You can leave the bottle in the fridge for 20 to 25 minutes and then drink it. Just remember to take it out of the fridge so it won’t freeze or it will be so cold the taste will again be ruined. The best temperature to drink your wine, as mentioned in many sources, is around 25˚C; and it is right, the wine was really made to be drunk at so-called room temperature; not too hot and not too cold. Some say that refrigerating wine even brings out the liveliness inside it; however, what I already stated about the ideal temperature still holds here; don’t chill your wine to the freezing point anyways. If you feel your wine is cool enough to drink, drink it; or as they say, if the shoe fits, wear it! Don’t be obsessed with the temperature thing much.
As for refrigerating wine, there are wines that are better chilled, and those are the ones that are light in body. It is said that stronger wines, that is, those that are high in tannins and higher in alcohol are better not to be chilled.
Pinot Noir, for instance, is a varietal whose taste could be improved by chilling. Its wine has fruit flavors of cranberries, strawberries, and cherries. It is light in color and tannins with brisk acidity, and it also ranges from light to medium body. You can chill it for half an hour and then drink it.
A study conducted in Australia found out that a lot of wine drinkers prefer their Shiraz wine to be served chilled. Shiraz/Syrah is a popular varietal in Australia and it is a medium-body wine.
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Fight the enemy at their own game
A very useful way to get rid of the heat in your drink is grapes; yes, grapes. You can leave a few grapes in the freezer and put them in your drink whenever necessary. This way, you can both chill your drink and not dilute it at the same time.
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Use a corkcicle
Corkcicles are small plastic icicles filled with reusable freeze gels. You can put them in the fridge to freeze and use them in your wine if you feel the drink is hot.
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Icy situations
There are also situations when you really need to chill your wine fast.
One is when you are in a hurry, like in an airport, for instance. There are times when you only have few minutes to spare and you order wine to chill out; like when you are waiting to catch your plane or a train; in such cases, you might not have much time to chill your wine and the drink is too hot to drink. In such cases, a few ice cubes could do the trick. But remember to drink your wine fast, immediately after you feel the wine is cool enough to drink and before the ice has melted.
Another situation is when the wine has a terrible quality and that is the only choice you have. In such a circumstance, diluting it could improve the taste fast. Similarly, there are times when it is too damn hot and there is no facility nearby; this is when I feel is okay to chill your wine by ice cubes as well.
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Do not add ice to your wine!
As you saw for yourself, there are very exceptional and few situations when it might be okay to use ice cubes in your wine; circumstances there are tiny odds you might be in. therefore, the overall advice is that you must not add ice cubes to your wine, especially to your Nik Pegasus!
