Going to a party in a few hours. Just ran out to a Liquor store to buy some New Year’s Champagne to take along. It’s already cold, the Liquor store had it refrigerated.
I know some folks like to put their liquor in the freezer, can I also do that with champagne? Or will champagne freeze quicker than liquor.
I want it to be cold when I arrive at the party. Between leaving my house and arriving at the party it will spend about 30 minutes in my heated car- that’s why I thought I might want to put it in the freezer til it’s time to leave.
No, don’t put it in the freezer. Not only is it not good for the wine, it’s dangerous. Put it in your fridge, which will make it colder than it should be anyway. It’ll be fine for 30 minutes in your car.
Ditto the no freezer thing. Do you have a cooler you can put it in for the drive? Otherwise, wrap it in foil and put it in your trunk. That’s likely to be the coldest place in the car.
It is possible to put champagne in the freezer, but if you are asking this is probably not something you need to do. You can hurt yourself, your loved ones, the champagne and the freezer. Champagne is best served at the same temperature as you would serve white wine - colder than room but warmer than regular refrigerator. Now, unfortunately this is close-to but not the ideal temperature to open sparkling wine to minimize loss of carbonation and product.
I only use snow (if available), ice or freezer when the sparkler is entirely too warm. Fridge temperature is probably too cold.
I will second the idea to place the bottle in the trunk.
I don’t see any advantage in wrapping the bottle in foil. Aluminum foil has zero (or damn close to it) insulating properties. You would be better off to wrap it in either a towel or blanket which would keep the warm air from circulating around the bottle, and therefore keep it cold.
We put champagne in the freezer all the time. It’s only dangerous if you forget it, which I’ve done. Nowadays whenever anything goes in the freezer for just a little while to get colder, the kitchen timer gets set to 15 minutes so I don’t wander off and forget about that $50 bottle of champagne getting dangerously cold.
But like others have said, champagne can get too cold. Ideally you want it around white wine temperature, or the temp of a standard fridge. If the liquor store has it cold, do what the others have said and wrap it in something, or bring a small cooler for the drive.
Of course, this is all too late now, as it’s morning. But just in case someone else asks…
When I was a kid, mom used to wrap the bottle of juice in my lunch bag in foil. It was always still cold at lunch. I asked her if it was the foil that kept it cold. She said, “No, it’s Mom Magic.” I thought she was snowing me. But it really was the Mom Magic?