In the Kitchen : Chill Champagne in a Flash

Why is it that every time you get a bottle of champagne you always forget that it needs to be chilled until it's too late?

Instead of putting the bottle on ice, put it on salt and ice. Layer the salt and ice in the bucket and the champagne will be chilled and ready to serve in much less time.

When ice melts into water it dissolves the salt. This mixture of salt and water actually has a lower freezing temperature than normal water, this melts the ice faster in a process known as latent heat fusion. The faster the ice melts the cooler it makes the bottle.