You’ve got pals coming over to grill. It’s 100° in the shade, and the outdoor kitchen has a fan… but still. Icy-cold bevvies are all that will save you. You’d rather drink a hot mug of coffee than a thick, sticky glass of red wine right now.

Alas! You forgot to take the white wine out of the rack and put it in the fridge last night. It’s room temperature… and you only have an hour till the party.

Chef Shelley sent us this fabulous Savvy tip on how to chill your wine down fast, by adding salt to an ice bath to lower the melting point. This is the same way that ice cream is made, in fact, only you can do it in your kitchen sink.

The ice brine method took 34 minutes to get to 38°—as opposed to 67 minutes in the freezer or 105 minutes in plain ice water. Clearly, it’s the right way to save the day. And you could do this with any bottle you wanted to quickly chill… doesn’t have to be wine.

The folks over at Cook’s Illustrated’s test kitchen are full of useful tidbits like this one, so peruse their site. Happy weekend refreshing!