Summer Wine Chillers

Summer is just a couple of weeks away and many of us are thinking about entertaining outdoors close to the barbeque grill. What better way to accent succulent steamed fish, caramelized fruit, or grilled veggies than a chilled white wine. On a hot day, even a red wine can take a little cooling down, especially when temperatures hit the 90s or higher. But how do you keep the wine flowing if your wine storage unit is in your kitchen or even in your cellar?

Wine Coolers
One way is to keep your wine handy near your grill in some sort of wine storage container that can keep the wine cool. The old stand by was a simple wine cooler. These can be very simple, using a bucket or tub filled with ice and nestling the wine into the ice. How long the wine stays chilled will depend on how fast the ice melts and how often you replenish your ice supply.

There have been elegant variations on this theme over the years that make the silver wine bucket seem passe and the picnic cooler downright crass. You can purchase giant wine glasses and fill them with ice and tuck in your wines. Since these will necessarily sweat as the ice melts, they are perfect for patios. Keeping the wine theme, some people choose waterproofed oak wine barrels on wrought iron legs that can cool wine and also be a conversation started at your next party.

Some party hosts prefer a crafted cedar cooler box with a liner to keep wine cool. There are some wooden boxes than have insulation just like a picnic cooler. These come with a gas cylinder hinge to ease the top down gently without disturbing the wine. The wooden construction makes these boxes a clever addition to patios and decks, especially those that already have wooden storage boxes on site to tuck away extra outdoor cushions or hide children’s patio toys.