The cold hard facts about putting ice in your wine

There's a debate raging about cold cubes in reds, whites and even sparkling – so what are the dos and don'ts?

By Victoria Moore, Wine correspondent 4 August 2023 • 10:37am

Those of us who know our way around wine agonise way more about venturing an opinion, says Victoria Moore Credit: Ruby Martin

On a hot day, most people I know will reach for ice to dump in their glass if the rosé has overheated. Most people I know will also comment defiantly or apologetically as they do so. But in an age where prime ministers wear trainers to work, wine-etiquette anxiety strikes me as being completely unnecessary.

Latterly, the two-Michelin-starred American chef David Chang, speaking on his podcast, has admitted that whenever he puts ice in his wine it ‘tastes like gold’ but he nonetheless feels he has done ‘something horribly wrong.’ Meanwhile Alex James, the Blur bassist-turned-farmer, has fuelled the debate by launching a new sparkling wine, called Britpop, that he recommends serving ‘over ice when it’s really sunny.’

In a recent Substack post, wine expert Joe Fattorini tackled the issue of why we mind so much about getting it ‘right’. Referring to the German sociologist Norbert Elias, Fattorini linked the refinement of table manners to a process of civilisation. ‘We stopped blowing our noses on tablecloths… Our revulsion at those who broke the rules is intensified because it represents a rejection of the whole Western social order.’

If it’s any consolation to anyone who has wanted to put ice in wine but didn’t quite dare, those of us who know our way around the stuff agonise way more about venturing an opinion in case doing so means we’re taken for Wine Snobs. (Is there any being more reviled?)

In restaurants, the ice mood is permissive. ‘One hundred per cent here for people wanting ice in their wine,’ says Donald Edwards, head sommelier at the Michelin-starred La Trompette in Chiswick. Meanwhile, ‘I actually have a specific ban on anyone ever even raising an eyebrow if someone asks for ice in their wine,’ tweeted Mike Boyne of BinTwo, a wine shop and bar in Padstow that I highly recommend.

But wait! Perhaps you are wondering why raising an eyebrow might need specifically to be banned… Look, I didn’t say wine pros don’t have opinions. Most, however, are only concerned about what happens to their own wine, and if we’re talking about to ice or not to ice, there is no clear answer.

I have canvassed a large number of colleagues on the subject and, while an outlying few are always against it, the general consensus boils down to this.

1. If rosé or an inexpensive white is too warm, they will happily add ice.

2. Ice works best with the more ‘refreshing’ styles of wine; it’s less good with chardonnay, or oaked styles.

3. Be generous: lots of ice will cool the drink more effectively without diluting it. Once the job is done, consider removing the ice unless you happen to drink quite quickly.

4. Ice with red is tricky. It can enhance the clean fruitiness of the wine or it can make the tannins jar unattractively. You won’t know which until you try.

5. With anything that might be considered a fine wine – a good Burgundy, for instance, or an old claret – you do risk spoiling the wine if you add ice. It’s better to consider alternative cooling methods.

The classic is, of course, putting the bottle in a bucket of ice and water. To speed things up, add salt to the water. This lowers the melting temperature of the ice, potentially taking the temperature of the water below zero, cooling the wine more quickly. I don’t like bits of plastic floating around in my glass, but reusable ice cubes, which can cool wine in the glass with no dilution, do have a following too.

This is all good for when it’s a blazing hot day or you’ve forgotten to refrigerate the wine, but putting ice in a sparkling wine that already comes perfectly chilled from the fridge (as James suggests for his Britpop) makes me wonder: why would you do this?

Is it because it’s better if you can’t taste the wine? The colder food or drink gets, the less you taste of it. Any child knows this from making lollipops with fruit cordials or Ribena: you need to make the mixture much stronger for an ice lolly than if you’re drinking it with cold tap water.

Or is James’s wine very sweet? A few years ago Moët & Chandon launched a champagne, Moët Ice, that was designed for drinking over the rocks. It was delicious, frivolous, hot-day fun but it was also very sweet, containing about 45g per litre of sugar (a Brut champagne has less than 12g per litre of sugar). The wine didn’t taste as sweet when it was very cold so the experience was different to drinking it in the normal way.

Most of us are agreed that the weather makes all the difference. BinTwo’s Mike Boyne says his own ice-filled wine glass is most likely to contain a ‘bright and juicy red on a hot, sunny day’. But if a customer wants ice in a fine Burgundy, they’re welcome to it: ‘Making people feel comfortable is the primary goal.’

We can all drink to that – pass the ice bucket.