Keeping wine cool after you’ve opened it needn’t be such a chore. Corkcicle harnesses the power of ice without the disappointment of dilution.
Mankind has always struggled to keep things that should be cold, as frosty as possible. Ancient Italians stored their food deep within caves, while wealthy aristocrats in feudal Europe had basement cellars filled with winter snow and ice to keep their provisions crisp. The first iceboxes were introduced in the 1930s, when ice was still ‘harvested’ from lakes and frozen rivers and stored in ice houses, to be distributed to upwardly mobile families throughout the year. Despite Scottish professor William Cullen’s early refrigerator design from 1755, it wasn’t until after WWII that refrigerators finally cost less than cars and were available to the mainstream public. That’s a lot of effort just to chill a bottle of rosé.
The next chapter in chilling technology is the Corkcicle, a brilliantly simple idea forged by American oenophiles Ben Hewitt, Eric Miller, and Stephen Bruner.
Purists will tell you that wine sitting on a counter is too warm, and wine sitting in an ice bucket is too cold. The Corkcicle, crafted from a cork top, with an elegant icicle-shaped shaft filled with a thermal gel specially designed to hold its temperature, lives somewhere in the middle.
Simply pour a glass from a chilled bottle, then insert the Corkcicle, which will hold the bottle’s temperature for up to an hour – no ice bucket needed. The collection includes the Corkcicle Air, which has a convenient pour-through feature that aerates your wine; the Chillsner for beer lovers; and the stylish metallic Corkcicle One, for trendsetters. The company also does great insulated flasks and mugs.
Tastebuds 1, Overheating 0.
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