The Best Ice Bucket and Wine Chiller for a Party

The simplest useful thing on this list: a double-wall stainless steel cylinder that holds a standard bottle upright on the table. The insulation keeps a chilled white or Champagne at serving temperature for longer, and it keeps a red at cellar temperature on a warm evening.

It needs no ice and makes no puddle, so it can sit on a tablecloth all night. Oggi says it fits most standard bottles and works indoors or out.

Skip it if you need to chill a warm bottle. It holds temperature; it does not create it. It is also hand wash only.

The catch. It keeps cold bottles cold; it cannot chill a warm one.

Le Creuset's sleeve is a freezer pack shaped for a wine bottle: pierce-resistant nylon over two inner gel packs, tapered at the top for contact and elastic at the sides for a snug fit. Keep it in the freezer, then slip it over a bottle when a guest arrives with something warm.

Le Creuset says it chills wine to serving temperature within 30 minutes and keeps it cold for over 90. It fits all 750 ml bottles, still or sparkling, and it folds flat for a picnic or a dinner at a friend's.

Skip it if you want something handsome on the table. It is a practical tool in a bright color, and it looks like one. Magnums will not fit.

The catch. Fits 750 ml bottles only, and it needs freezer space between uses.

Vacu Vin, the Dutch maker best known for its wine pump, makes the HIVE as a double-wall insulated stainless steel bottle cooler with a honeycomb pattern. Like the Oggi, it keeps a pre-chilled bottle cold for hours without ice or water.

The difference is size and finish. The HIVE fits most bottles from 700 ml to 1.5 liters, so a magnum of Champagne or a wide sparkling bottle goes in without a fight. The honeycomb reads as deliberate on a set table.

Skip it if your bottles are warm, for the same reason as the Oggi. Pair it with the Le Creuset sleeve, or chill in ice first and let this hold the temperature at the table.

The catch. Twice the price of the Oggi for the same basic job; you are paying for the look and the magnum fit.

S'well's XL bucket is 18/8 stainless steel with triple-layer vacuum insulation. It holds 3 liters of ice, comes with a stainless lid and a scoop, and S'well says it keeps ice cold for up to 60 hours. The outside stays dry.

The useful difference from the Simple Modern is shape: S'well says it fits a standard wine or Champagne bottle, so one bucket can hold ice for cocktails and then chill a bottle at the table. For a small apartment that is one fewer thing in the cabinet.

Skip it if you dislike printed finishes. The teakwood pattern is a wood-look print on steel, and some tables will suit a plain one better. It is hand wash only.

The catch. The printed wood-look finish is not to every taste, and it costs half again the Simple Modern.

When the guest list passes a dozen, people serve themselves, and the right object is a tub. BREKX's Anchored tub is heavy-duty 0.7 mm stainless steel, double walled, 13.5 inches across and 6.75 inches deep, holding 12 quarts. The maker says that is twelve to fifteen 12 ounce bottles plus ice.

The double wall does two jobs. It keeps the ice longer than a single-wall galvanized tub, and it stops condensation from pooling on the floor or the table, which BREKX guarantees as leak proof. Hinged handles on both sides make it carryable when full, just.

Skip it for a dinner for six. It is a party object, and too large to leave on a set table. It will hold wine bottles upright only if the ice is deep, since it is shallower than a wine bottle is tall.

The catch. Shallower than a wine bottle is tall, so it suits beer and cans better than wine.