Hi Ho and a Bottle of Rum

The beautiful thing about wine is that it can be enjoyed almost anywhere. In your back garden, on a meadow, or maybe at work if you’re lucky. Wine can even be enjoyed on the oceans around the world, but here you need a little consideration as it can be trickier than you might imagine.

Keeping it cool. When it comes to the temperature of wine, its fine to serve red at room temp without chilling it at all. The same cannot be said for white wine however, or indeed champagne which is at its best when it has been chilled…something not easy to achieve on a boat with no fridge. A great tip however is to use nature’s chiller and stick the bottles in the sea. You can literally dunk them over the side of the boat (insuring they are secured first) and leave them for an hour or so before drinking.If you happen to be sailing around the Caribbean your wine may not get a chilled as you like…but never mind, you’re in the Caribbean.

Preventing breakages. With all the movement on the sea it can be difficult to keep your bottles of wine intact.You should not only keep them as close to the centre of the boat as possible to reduce movement, but also secure them down well. If you place your wines in wine bags then this will protect them further and stop any liquid escaping if the bottles do break.

Opening the bottle. You may want to break a bottle on your hull to christen your vessel, but this isn’t much use if you want to drink the stuff. Try not to get the cork wet as it can swell and this can make it harder to remove. Also, don’t try to remove the cork by improvising with all manner of tableware or fishing hooks. Use a qaulity bottle opener and take your time. If you ruin this bottle, you may have a bit of a swim to get another.