Chill Your Wine In An Instant With One Salty Hack

When it comes to wine, there are some things that just seem to go hand in hand. A fine red, for example, might emerge with a decanter trailing close behind. When you reach for a bottle of white wine, you wouldn't be mistaken for reaching for the less ornate but no less useful ice bucket with the other hand. Whether you're sipping on your favorite white wine as part of a relaxing brunch, a Sunday patio party, or a lovely dinner, one thing remains true: You should always have your white wine properly chilled.

Regardless of the caliber of white wine you choose, each deserves to be served in its ideal, thoroughly chilled state. But, even if you already avoid the common pitfall of chilling wine in just ice, there's still room for improvement with a common household ingredient. With a generous sprinkling of salt, you can ensure that your wine is sufficiently chilled in its frigid ice bucket home. It may seem like a strange addition, but the salt will keep your wine colder for longer, meaning one less worry for you.

If you're doing things properly and putting some water in your ice bucket to make an ice bath for your wine, adding some salt can prove to be a real boon. Salt lowers the freezing temperature of water, and the temperature that your newly salted water freezes at is dependent on how salinated this water is. But, it's possible for the ice in your bucket to bring the water temperature all the way down to even 15 degrees Fahrenheit without freezing it –- a marked improvement from unsalted water, and a hack that will help keep your white wine colder.

Another huge bonus from adding salt to your ice bucket is that this will also drastically reduce the time it takes to chill your wine. It's recommended that you add in about one cup of salt for every gallon or so of water. However, you can also pre-dissolve your salt if you're the type to plan ahead. Just make a salt slurry with salt and some warm water. Then, add that to the bucket followed by your ice and cold water, and pat yourself on the back for making the perfect, chilly abode for your wine. No matter how you approach this hack, you'll yield a colder, more satisfying wine in a shorter amount of time, and that's truly something worth raising a glass to.