I bought it half-expecting a gimmick. Two hours into dinner, the wine was still cold.

Quarter past seven, the first glass of white. The bottle stays on the table, because that is where everyone is. By the second pour it has gone soft, and the friend on my left sets her glass down half finished. You cannot un-open a bottle — and the drawer under my coffee maker is already a graveyard of things I bought to fix exactly this.

White wine pouring through the clear spout into a stemmed glass at a dinner table at night, a candle and a table lamp the only light — the glass I expected to be lukewarm — The second pour. I had already decided it would disappoint me.

Electric corkscrew. Used twice.

One question I judge everything by now

Did it do more than I counted on? Not on the first night — on the second glass, the second evening, a month later.

The ice bucketdoes exactly what it promises, and leaves a wet ring on the table
The fridge relaythe bottle spends half the evening in another room
The neoprene sleevenever frozen on the night I actually need it
Ice in the glassreaches the wine and thins it
The freezer sprintfine, right up until you forget the bottle is in there

The bucket wasn’t a mistake. It did exactly what it said it would do — that was the whole problem.

Everything in that drawer was precisely as good as it looked. Nothing was ever more.

A melting ice bucket on the counter — it did exactly what it promised and nothing more — Kept its promise. Kept nothing else.

Why the least impressive thing on the table is the one that works

Cold from the outside has to cross the glass before it ever reaches the wine. That is why the bucket and the fridge never turn out better than they look — they work at the wrong end of the problem. Cold that starts inside the wine has no distance to travel.

Which is why the plainest object on the table is the one doing the work, and why it did more than I paid for it to do.

The Lindner & Co Wine Cooling Stick: a rod of 304 food-grade stainless steel. About an hour in the freezer. Into a bottle you have already opened, it brings the wine to serving temperature in 10 to 15 minutes and holds it there for up to three hours. The built-in spout aerates the wine as you pour, drip-free.

What I expectedOne clever evening, then a quiet life in the drawer with all the others.

What actually happenedThe second glass, two hours later, was as cold as the first. Nobody went near a bucket.

See how it works →

The white box lying flat on a dark oak dining table in evening lamplight, the steel rod and its clear spout resting on top, an empty glass beside it and a bottle of white behind — the object I didn't expect anything from — This is the whole thing. A box, a rod, a spout. I know.

Three things I do now

It lives in the freezer. About an hour the first time; after that it is simply there.
Into the bottle I have already opened. I pour a glass first to make room.
Pour through the spout. This is the part that surprised me most — it airs the wine on the way into the glass.

Nothing to charge, nothing to replace, dishwasher safe.

The one thing I didn’t buy it for.

A hand setting the steel rod on the wire shelf of an open freezer, beside two ice-cube trays and a bag of frozen peas — the gadget that never ended up in the junk drawer — Freezer shelf. Not the junk drawer.

What I still doubted

Another thing I’ll use once.

It lives in the freezer, not the junk drawer. No motor, no batteries, no gel pack, nothing in it to break. It goes in the dishwasher.

A piece of metal can’t do what a bucket does.

It does the opposite of what a bucket does. The cold starts in the wine, so it has no distance to cross: serving temperature in 10 to 15 minutes, and cold for up to three hours.

What if it doesn’t live up to it for me?

It fits standard 750ml bottles, screw-cap included, and there is a 30-day refund policy.

Two identical white WINECOOLER boxes side by side on a dark oak dining table in the evening, a steel rod with its clear spout resting on each, an empty wine glass and a bottle of white behind, a lit candle and a folded napkin — What arrives. Twice. One box each.

Halfway through dinner the friend on my left picked up the bottle and asked what the metal thing in the neck was — the second kit went home with her.

Buy one, get one free

Two complete kits: 2 chilling rods, 2 aerating spouts, 2 stoppers.

1 + 1 Free$54.99 2 + 2 Free$94.99 3 + 3 Free$134.99

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Free US shipping · 30-day refund policy · 4.7/5 · 1,422 reviews

Other people who didn’t expect much

4.7/5 · 1,422 reviews

Started out sceptical, but now I don't want to be without it.

Tess Kok

It sat in my freezer for weeks .....only used it for the first time yesterday. Pleasantly surprised, very happy

Carina D.

The bottle with the rod in it on a balcony table at dusk, two glasses of white beside it — the second glass, still cold — Second glass, two hours in, still cold.

It still looks like nothing in the freezer. I just don’t open a bottle without it now.

Get two complete kits →

Buy 1, Get 1 Free · $54.9930-day refund policy

See what changed my mind →