Martha Stewart's Favorite Way To Drink Wine Involves A Faux Pas

If you like putting ice cubes in your wine, we promise we won't tell. But if Martha Stewart, one of the best-known tastemakers and entertaining gurus, encourages you to do so, then there is no need to be ashamed anyway. A glass of wine with a few ice cubes is admittedly refreshing on a hot summer day, and pitchers of wine cocktails like sangria and tinto de verano are not complete without a generous scoop of ice. However, for Stewart, this eyebrow-raising addition is not for the purpose of flavor or temperature.

Stewart shared the reason for her wine habit with People. "I extend the glass quite a bit by the addition of ice cubes," she says. As the ice cubes melt, the wine dilutes over time. This expands the amount of liquid in the glass, so you can drink more liquid for longer — but without increasing your alcohol consumption. And technically, the melted ice serves to hydrate you even as you drink alcohol.

This is considered a faux pas because ice dilutes the flavor of the wine, and, in a way, it could be argued that this distorts the hard work of the winemakers. But, as Stewart demonstrates to us, drinking wine doesn't always have to be serious. From the way we hold our glasses to the size of the pour, there is a lot of etiquette we ought to follow, but at the end of the day, enjoying your wine is all that matters.

Some sommeliers, wine snobs, and Reddit users on the r/wine thread claim that adding ice cubes to wine is indeed a crime. Sticking Chardonnay in a cooler for an appropriate amount of time is the recommendation. If you forget to chill your wine, plopping in an ice cube is logical, but there are plenty of other situations where an added ice cube makes sense.

As Martha Stewart shares, iced wine is great for slowing down your alcohol consumption. Maybe you're drinking during the day or at an all-day holiday gathering, but you don't want to get drunk. Red wine on a hot day is not enjoyable, but it's a perfectly refreshing drink when ice cubes and a splash of something sparkling are added. Some cheap wines can have off-putting flavors at room temperature, but these can be tamed by cooling the temperature with ice cubes. 

If you're still not on board, try making your ice cubes look fancy to make the alleged "crime" less offensive. A few edible flowers added to the ice cube tray before freezing should do the trick. If diluting the wine is your concern, try using frozen fruit, like grapes, instead; these can also be eaten after your glass is finished. Even leftover wine can be frozen to make ice cubes, a refreshing way to prevent watery wine. (It's the same concept as freezing leftover coffee to chill your cold brew.) Or, try reusable ice cubes that never melt.