Vin Chilla: My Sister's Pretty Silver Electric Ice Bucket
Written: Jul 15 '02 (Updated Jul 15 '02)
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Pros: it really works
Cons: sort of an expensive toy unless you drink a lot of wine
The Bottom Line: If you're a wine buff, this is a great gadget. For most of us, it's probably not worth it.
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| naphtalia's Full Review: Vinchilla Single Bottle Electric Wine Chiller 1079... |
My sister likes gadgets and she likes wine. When the opportunity comes up to get her a gadget that involves wine, I find it's often hard to resist. So it was, that when I saw the Vin Chilla Electric Wine Cooler on sale, I bought one for my sister's birthday. This weekend was the first time I've seen her since her birthday, so she just got her gift. We were playing with it all weekend.
Vin Chilla is designed to bring a bottle of wine from room temperature to drinkable temperature in just a few minutes without harming the bottle's contents.
Using the Vin Chilla was a breeze. We emptied an ice tray full of cubes into the unit and then added water up to a marked a line. Then all that we had to do was put in the bottle, plug it in and set the timer. Drinkable temperature was reached with wine bottles in about four to five minutes. It also worked very nicely to cool down bottles of gingerale and sparkling cider that were part of this weekend's festivities. The unit cools from the top which is makes sense since cold sinks. This also helps to force any sentiment down in the bottle by chilling the layer it might be in.
The Vin Chilla uses a whirlpool action to cool the bottles faster than a plain icebucket would. It certainly is fast and we had lots of fun playing with it.
Since the only thing that ever actually touches the unit is water in either its solid or liquid form, clean up is a nothing.
Though we didn't give it a try, the instructions indicate that using warm water instead of ice, it is also possible to use the unit to bring up the temperature of a too cold bottle of red wine.
The Vin Chilla Wine Cooler comes in 4 different finishes. My sister's has a brushed chrome finish which has the advantage of looking pretty and sparkly while not showing too many finger prints. It is also available in plain chrome, black or sapphire blue. I thought the black and blue versions looked rather clunky. The metal finishes both looked quite sleek.
I don't drink enough wine to make this investment worthwhile for myself. However, we had a pool party this weekend, and many people brought wine as a hostess gift. It was nice to be able to have the wine chilled so quickly so guests could enjoy it.
I first saw the Vin Chilla in a very upscale gourmet catalog for $150. I have since seen it several places for about $80. My sister's was on sale for $60. There is also a rechargable version (about 15 bottles on a charge according to the brochure) for $85.
A standard wine cooler - non electric - can run from about $10 for the bottom of the line to about $100 for a very good one. (Of course, there is always someone who will charge you more.) The median price seems to be about $30. These don't work as fast as the Vin Chilla.
So now, it's up to you to decide if the extra money is worth the speed.
If speed is of the essence or you want to chill a lot of bottles, this is the way to go. For me, I'll stick to my terra cotta cooler.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 60
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Epinions.com ID:
naphtalia
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Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the_circus has left town.
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