Summer, sun - and a cool glass of wine or sparkling wine on the balcony or in the garden.

Sounds good, is good, but sometimes causes problems.

Namely, when – for whatever reason that cannot be excused – one has not taken precautions.

You might still have a good drop up your sleeve, but it's not cold and it has to be reasonably quick now.

Because the neighbors are coming and the sun will be gone soon and everything.

So: what to do?

Peter Badenhop

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Well, it really isn't that problematic.

The classic cooling sleeves promise fast, uncomplicated help.

Ideally, they are ready in the freezer and bring a bottle to drinking temperature in ten to 15 minutes.

If there is no cuff in the house, a kitchen towel will do: run it under cold water, wring it out, wrap the bottle and put it in the freezer – the wine or sparkling wine should be cold in 20 to 25 minutes.

With ice and salt

Cooling is only significantly faster with the help of ice cubes.

If you have enough on hand, fill a champagne bucket, a bucket or, if necessary, a sink two-thirds with ice, fill the last third with cold water and put the bottles in.

In 15 minutes they should be ready to be uncorked.

However, this process does not work without the water: Bottles that are only lying on or under the ice need much longer to cool down.

That leaves the silver bullet, which is not only used by professionals, but also has a wonderful French name: Frapping.

For this you need not only ice, but also salt.

The rest is simple - and lightning fast: cover the bottom of a champagne cooler with ice cubes, sprinkle generously with salt (about four tablespoons), place the bottle in the middle of the cooler, fill up halfway with ice cubes, generously salt again, then the rest with ice Fill and sprinkle salt over it again.

With this method, the cooling only takes a few minutes, then the wine is actually ice cold - and nothing stands in the way of a cool afternoon on the terrace.

And the best thing about it: Of course you can also have beer and all sorts of other drinks.

The Frenchman is very pragmatic.