How to stop labels from falling off?

September 15, 2007 11:12 AM

Help! My inlaws are hosting a cousin's wedding this afternoon. We want to chill the white wine before dinner, but don't want the labels to fall off in the ice water. We don't have enough room in the fridge for all the wine, so that isn't an option. Any ideas (short of sticking each bottle in a plastic bag) on how to stop the labels from falling off? Also, we're planning on chilling the wine for 1 hour and then putting them on the tables 30 minutes before dinner...will that be enough to have the wine at the right temperature? Thanks in advance for your timely and helpful answers.
posted by ms.v. to food & drink (20 comments total)

Use a styrofoam container outside with holes poked in the bottom to drain water.
posted by johngumbo at 11:13 AM on September 15, 2007

Here's an emergency chill down routine if needed. Can you lay the bottles down in the ice, label up?
posted by iconomy at 11:17 AM on September 15, 2007

Just put the bottles in plastic bags before putting them in the ice.
posted by IronLizard at 11:18 AM on September 15, 2007

You've ruled out the easiest solution: plastic grocery bags are easy enough to come by and tall enough to keep the water out.

In a bucket of ice, 30min to an hour will be plenty of time, in a fridge it takes a good three hours. If time is of the essence, add a cup of salt to the ice, it will melt faster giving you cold water faster.
posted by furtive at 11:18 AM on September 15, 2007

Any ideas (short of sticking each bottle in a plastic bag)
posted by iconomy at 11:21 AM on September 15, 2007

Well since you dont want to use a plastic bag. May I suggest wrapping the bottles in cling film (do you call it ceran wrap over the pond?)
posted by gergtreble at 11:27 AM on September 15, 2007

Better make sure they are real cold if you are going to let them sit out for half an hour.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:35 AM on September 15, 2007

I thought the plastic bag idea was pretty good!
posted by crabintheocean at 11:42 AM on September 15, 2007

Is it too time-consuming to bag the bottles individually? If so, maybe putting them in larger plastic bags, like cheap and flimsy waste basket bags, and then immersing them in the ice would be easier.
posted by christinetheslp at 11:54 AM on September 15, 2007

Blast them with a fire extinguisher.
posted by glibhamdreck at 11:54 AM on September 15, 2007

You guys are fantastic. I am glad that my idea will work!!
posted by ms.v. at 12:12 PM on September 15, 2007

If you only have an hour, the freezer might be an option. Wine left in the freezer for an hour will chill considerably, but it will not freeze.

Wine left in overnight will freeze, and push out its own cork, according to my highly scientific experiments which I have conducted on this topic. It was a nice bottle of wine, too.
posted by ikkyu2 at 12:34 PM on September 15, 2007

If time is really of the essence, may I suggest filling the tub (cooler, whatever) with the bottles, then pour ice over the top, then fill with cold water. I had a friend who worked room service and insisted that this cooled the bottles MUCH more quickly than just ice, and I've tried it a few times and noticed the same thing.
posted by rkent at 1:16 PM on September 15, 2007

Put the ice in plastic sandwich bags.
posted by fvox13 at 1:46 PM on September 15, 2007

Seconding furtive about adding salt to the water and ice. It's amazing how much faster that makes a bottle chill.
posted by mostlymartha at 1:50 PM on September 15, 2007

Yes, asavage had a post about chilling Coke that mentioned the benefits of adding salt.
posted by acoutu at 2:37 PM on September 15, 2007

hit them with a fire extinguisher. okay, not the best idea, but i saw it work on "mythbusters." :)
posted by thinkingwoman at 3:20 PM on September 15, 2007

Maybe it's too late, but I was going to suggest dry ice, if you could find somewhere nearby--that would definitely chill the bottles quickly, without the moisture to soak the labels off.
posted by LairBob at 7:10 PM on September 15, 2007

If you're adding salt, be aware that it takes a fair amount of salt to lower the temperature of ice water. McGee recommends a few tablespoons for a tray of ice cubes and a cup of water, to lower it 10F.
posted by Caviar at 5:37 AM on September 17, 2007

Just as a comment to rkent:

Ice with water cools much faster than only ice because the water conducts heat (cold) very well.
If you only use ice, it has lots of air between the cubes and air is actually a good insulator when it is not agitated. Compare fur (with lots of trapped air in it) to a chilling wind.
posted by mmkhd at 7:06 AM on September 17, 2007