Published May 1, 2010. From Cook's Illustrated.
Want to cool down that Chablis, quick? Three new electric wine chillers claim they can chill a bottle quicker than your fridge.
Want to cool down that Chablis, quick? Three new electric wine chillers claim they can chill a bottle quicker than your fridge (50 minutes). We put them through their paces with bottles of Chardonnay, aiming for final temperatures between 48 and 52 degrees and using thermocouple probes to check temperatures. In two of the products, the bottle was spun in a cylinder along with water and ice, while in the third a siphon sprayed the bottle with cold water. Only one completely cooled the wine in less time than a refrigerator (six minutes), but it also flooded the counter with water and destroyed the label. We hoped it was just a fluke, so we did the test again with another version of the same model and experienced the same result.
None of the three, then, was fast or efficient enough to match its claims. They left us cold—too bad they couldn’t do the same for the wine.
