Steal This Quick Wine-Cooling Trick From Ina Garten

As the old saying goes, “A party without Champagne is just a meeting,” and no one knows this better than hostess-with-the-mostess Ina Garten. The Barefoot Contessa is known for her entertaining tricks—like setting out easy, no-bake appetizers to minimize party prep. She recently shared another tip with her Instagram followers about how to chill room-temp Champagne super quickly. Naturally, we were all ears.

Garten says, “Most people think if you want to chill a bucket of white wine or Champagne, you do it in a bucket of ice. But the right way to do it is in a bucket of ice water.” Here’s how to do it: Simply fill a Champagne bucket halfway with ice, and then top it off with water until the bucket is about three-quarters of the way full (don’t fill it all the way, or your water will overflow once you stick the wine in the bucket.)

Then, Ina says, “you take the bottle of Champagne, and plunge it up right to its neck. That way, it gets chilled really fast.” Our friends at Food & Wine agree. And they even tested it out: While a bottle of room-temperature white took an hour to get cold enough in the freezer, it only took 20 minutes in an ice-water bath!

This tip will come in handy any time of year, but especially during the holiday season when you need to quickly ice down wine for a dinner party or bring a chilled bottle of bubbly as a hostess gift. As Garten says, “Fast Champagne. Who wouldn’t want that?”