7.30pm, third glass, and the bottle you brought is warm on her bench. The fix: to serving temperature in 10 to 15 minutes.
The column's answer, in three rules · Rated 4.7/5 across 1,422 reviews · 30-day money-back guarantee ↓
The question that arrives most often with the first warm evenings of spring, from the one who brings the wine. Saturday:
- 6.00You hand over a good Clare Valley riesling at the door, cold from your own fridge. "Oh, lovely," she says, and it goes on the bench beside three other bottles. The fridge is full of dinner.
- 6.20First glass. Exactly right.
- 7.30Third glass. The talk has moved on to grandchildren, and the wine is the temperature of the room. Nobody says a word. You notice.
The bottle you bring gets judged by the third glass. Is there a polite way to keep it cold after it leaves your hands?
There is. First, what fails at the table.
The freezer. She has to remember it is in there. Twenty minutes becomes forty, and the bottle comes out slushy or not at all.
The ice bucket. It sweats onto her table, takes the spot the bread needed, and dinner is over before the wine is cold.
The sleeve. It slows the warming and never reverses it.
All three work on the outside of the bottle and hope the cold gets through the glass; the rod puts the cold in the wine, so there is nothing to get through.
What is in the small box
A cooling rod in 304 food-grade stainless steel, the same grade as her cutlery. An aerating pour spout in clear acrylic that seats on the rod. A stopper for what is left. Every kit is all three, in its own box. Fits 99 per cent of bottles, screw caps included. For whites, rosé and sparkling.
Three rules, in order
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STEP 1Keep it in the freezer, not the cupboard.
The rod lives in your freezer door. Put it there the day you unpack it; after that it is simply there whenever a bottle is.
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STEP 2Drop it in the moment the bottle opens.
Screw cap or cork, the rod slides into the open bottle and the spout seats on top. It brings the wine to serving temperature in 10 to 15 minutes, from the inside. No ice, nothing melting into the wine.
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STEP 3Leave the bottle on the table and pour.
It keeps the wine cold for up to three hours. The spout aerates each pour, and nothing runs down the label. Stopper in for what is left. Dishwasher-safe afterwards.
Candour, as the column owes you: the rod has to be frozen first, and this is not a wine fridge. Tonight the box is the gift; from her next bottle on, it is the fix.
Two boxes arrive. Each holds a rod, a spout and a stopper. You pay for one.
Why two: the first goes with the next bottle you bring; the second stays in your freezer, so the same rule holds at your own table. The only other thing that does this properly is a wine fridge, which costs many times more and cannot come to her house with you.
1 + 1 freeTwo kitsA$74.99 2 + 2 freeMost popularFour kits: one for your freezer, three for the next three dinners.A$124.99A$31.25 a kit 3 + 3 freeSix kitsA$169.99A$28.33 a kit Get the kits — buy one, get one freeRated 4.7/5 across 1,422 reviews · 30-day money-back guarantee · Free shipping Australia-wide · Orders placed today ship tomorrow
Readers ask, answered
- Does it water the wine down?
- No. Nothing melts, because nothing is ice. The rod is sealed 304 food-grade stainless steel, and the only thing in the glass is the wine.
- Does it fit a screw cap?
- Yes. It fits 99 per cent of bottles, screw cap or cork. Cap off, rod in, spout on where the cap was.
- What if the bottle is already warm when I get there?
- Drop the rod in anyway. It brings the wine to serving temperature in 10 to 15 minutes and then holds it cold for up to three hours.
- I mostly bring reds.
- Then this is for the whites, rosé and sparkling on the bench, the bottles that are supposed to be cold and are not. Reds stay where they are.
- What exactly do I get for A$74.99?
- Two complete kits, each with its own rod, aerating pour spout and stopper, in its own box. Nothing to refill, nothing to replace.
- What if I don't like it?
- Thirty days, money back. Take it to one dinner first, pour the third glass, and if it is not what you have just read here, send it back.
What verified buyers wrote
Rated 4.7/5 across 1,422 reviews. Verified purchasers.
Bought the 2+2 and gave a pair to my neighbour. We're both chronic forgetters. Problem quietly gone from both households.
Sister turned up early, bottle was room temp, and I stayed calm for once. It sat in the wine right through lunch. Felt very smug.
Took a star off nothing. Second hour outside and the glass was still properly cold. Screwcap bottles fit fine.
The last word
Bring the bottle you always bring. Tie the small box to it. The next time she pours the third glass, the rod is already in the bottle: to serving temperature in 10 to 15 minutes, cold for up to three hours, and the one bottle on the bench she asks you about. Put the second kit in your own freezer tonight.
Bring it cold — buy one, get one freeFree shipping Australia-wide · 30-day money-back guarantee