Does Wine Freeze? How to make Beautiful Floral Ice Cubes
There is nothing worse on a hot summer day than going in for a cool sip of wine to find that your glass has warmed up to lukewarm status. You’ve probably done things to avoid this situation, like add ice cubes or maybe you’ve straight up even wondered, does wine freeze? We’re answering all of your pressing questions about chilling wine and sharing our favorite way to do it, California Grown style!
**This post was updated 2/18/2022 with new tutorial-style images, recipe round-up links, and information about freezing wine and edible flowers.**
We get pretty creative around here when it comes to keeping our wine nice and chilled. Our latest solution for your wine warming woes is not only beautiful, but it’s also easy too. Say hello to our floral ice cubes for wine! But first, let’s answer that pressing question….
Does wine freeze?
Yes! The average alcohol content in a bottle of wine is 12.5%, which means that a bottle of wine freezes at a temperature of around 22°F unlike other spirits with higher alcohol content.
Now, we aren’t saying you should throw corked bottles of your favorite Chardonnay in the freezer, but we do think that we should explore different ways to keep wine chilled without watering it down or altering the flavor.
A more in depth conversation about, Does Wine Freeze?
Our friends at Hope Family Wines went into depth on the topic of freezing wine.
They take a look at the reasons why wine freezes when kept at cold temperatures and what it actually does to the taste of the wine itself.
Speaking of Hope Family Wines…
We recently caught up with Austin Hope of Hope Family Wines in Paso Robles, Ca to talk about life, love, grapes, and of course – their wines!
Now let’s get back to discovering new ways to keep our wine chilled on hot days, shall we?!
How to make floral ice cubes with wine.
This is my type of DIY project – easy, beautiful, and delicious! You will have zero regrets filling your wine glass with wine-based ice cubes that literally bloom into your glass as you sip without watering down your wine!
Supplies needed to make floral ice cubes.
- Favorite bottle of chardonnay
- silicone ice tray
- fresh edible flowers from California
Which edible flowers are best for floral ice cubes.
You can use all sorts of edible flowers to make floral ice cubes. Just avoid any that are overly pungent in flavor like chive blossoms.
Now, nestle one or two blossoms into each well of a silicone ice tray.
Now for the wine.
Pour white wine over the edible flowers in the silicone mold submerging them completely.
Place the ice cube tray into the freezer so that it sits nice and level. Then freeze for at least 4-6 hours.
The optimal freezing time is 24 hours prior to use to ensure that the frozen cubes hold their shape for a bit when you take them out of the molds.
How to serve floral ice cubes.
Place one floral ice cube in each wine glass and top with chilled white wine.
We are ready for summer’s next heatwave because our wine is officially chilled and looking super stylish!!
Looking for more ways to keep your wine chilled on hot summer days? We’ve got ya covered!
Remember when I said we get pretty creative when it comes to chilling wine around here?! You can call it a passion project of sorts.
Floral Ice Bucket DIY
Our beautiful ice buckets are made with a colorful mix of California Grown cut flowers which make it a really colorful and festive addition to any occasion!
Just look at those Gerbera Daisies!
Raspberry Frosé
This Raspberry Frosé from the G Free Foodie is a refreshing wine slush cocktail made with raspberries, peach, and rosé wine.
You can make it two ways: in a blender or an ice cream machine – but either way is a great way to beat the heat!
Blooming Edible Flower Ice Cubes
This Mess is Ours makes flower-filled juice-based ice cubes for summer sips that look like they’re blooming as they melt!
Meg loves to use different size molds to create unique shapes for her floral cubes as well.
Chill your wine with frozen grapes!
A fun and delicious way to keep your wine glass chilled during the warmer months is to drop a few frozen grapes into your glass instead of ice cubes.
This will not only look really beautiful in your glass and keep your wine perfectly chilled, but the grapes won’t water down your wine as they defrost!
Now that you know the answer to the question, does wine freeze? And you have a variety of ideas for ways to keep your wine chilled this summer, let’s take a second to celebrate all of those gorgeous edible flowers, shall we?!
We LOVE California Grown edible flowers! Here are some delicious ways to use them!
California is America’s leading producer of high-quality cut flowers and greens – growing over 75% of all domestic cut flowers in the United States. That includes culinary-grade flowers, so when you see an orchid on your dessert or a snapdragon in your salad, there’s a good chance it’s California Grown!
Floral Butter
Edible flowers lend a soft aromatic flavor to softened butter, all while offering a fun and unique presentation.
Edible Flower Infused Goat Cheese
This Mess is Ours shared 2 ways to infuse goat cheese with edible flowers and we can’t help but think about all of the EPIC cheeseboards we will be making with these in the future!
Chilled Avocado Soup
This Chilled Avocado Soup {Sopa de Aguacate} with Farmers’ Market Fairy Dust from Hola Jalapeno is an easy, healthy light lunch or dinner made for hot summer nights. Silky smooth and utterly refreshing topped with crunchy sunflower seeds and edible flowers
Gluten-Free Edible Flower Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
The G Free Foodie’s buttery-crisp shortbreads feature pretty green flecks and fabulous crunch courtesy of pistachios.