Wine coolers

Check the height first. A cooler measuring 19 to 22 cm fits a standard Bordeaux or Burgundy bottle; for magnums, you need 25 cm or more, otherwise the neck sticks out so far that the upper half does not cool. A wide wine tub measuring 42 to 47 cm holds four to eight bottles at once and works faster at a reception than separate buckets.

Then choose the system. A bucket with ice and water cools fastest because water conducts heat away much better than air: fill it with half ice and half cold water, not ice alone. You put a double-walled model in the freezer for an hour, after which it cools without ice, preventing wet labels and a puddle of meltwater on the table. For sparkling wine, look at the champagne coolers.

Place the bottle upright in the cooler, not at an angle, so that the cold water reaches above the shoulder. A room-temperature bottle reaches serving temperature in about twenty minutes in a bucket of ice water; in the refrigerator, the same process takes two hours.

Remove the bottle from the cooler to pour and wipe it dry; otherwise, water will drip onto the table and the label. Put it back immediately afterward. If the bottle is being passed around a long table, a model with a stand is more practical than a separate bucket, because it won't have to stand among the plates and glasses. Seal whatever is left at the end of the evening with a wine stopper.

Stainless steel is the workhorse choice and lasts for years in the wash-up, but it condenses on the outside and marks a wooden table; put a coaster underneath. Clear plastic shows the label, which is handy if you sell wine by the bottle, and it is lighter and less prone to breakage. Copper and gold look warmer on the table, but those finishes should be washed by hand to keep the coating intact.

Always empty a cooler completely after use and dry it out. Leftover water with traces of wine turns musty within a day, and you smell it again in the next bottle.

If you want to chill and serve ice at the same time, ice buckets are more practical than a bottle cooler. The matching glass can be found among the wine glasses. And for occasions when a cooler comes to the table: you’ll find the proportions for an Aperol Spritz and a sangria on the recipe pages. If you work in the hospitality industry and serve a lot of wine by the glass, it’s practical to have a cooler at each station rather than passing one around; that saves walking and ensures your bottle never arrives at the table lukewarm.