Wines, particularly red, often benefit from a little aeration to allow the fruit to shine through and the flavors to mellow out. This can be done the traditional way of letting it sit and open up in the glass before drinking, or by decanting. Alternatively, in keeping with our busy lives, we can use one of the many aeration devices available on the market to speed up the process.
While I sit more in the traditionalist camp, I decided to check out the various devices available to see exactly what they offer. Have you used any of these devices? What do you think?
Traditionally red wines were cellared for many years before being opened. This was to allow the tannins to soften and the structural components of the wine to become harmonious with the fruit. For many wines today, we don't have to cellar them for years before drinking, as they are produced in a way that makes them more accessible earlier.
Even so, big full-bodied reds with lots of tannin, such as Napa Cabs, Bordeaux, or Rhone Blends — or many Italian reds — still benefit from aeration before drinking. Opening the wine a few hours before drinking is one of the more usual ways to deal with this, as is decanting the wine. But with busy lives today, we often don't have time to wait a few hours, and yes, we all love gadgets. With that in mind I set about checking out the main wine aeration devices available on the U.S. market. Here is what I found.
• The Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator, $39.99 - Based on the principle that when the speed of a moving liquid is increased the pressure of the liquid decreases (Bernoulli's principle). When wine is poured in the vinturi, its design creates an increase in the wine's velocity and a decrease in its pressure. This pressure difference draws in air, which is mixed with wine to improve the aromas, flavor and harmony of the wine.
• The BevWizard Wine Smoother, $29.99 - The BevWizard funnel is placed snugly onto the top of the opened bottle of wine. The wine is poured out through the device. As the wine is poured through the magnetic field in the pouring spout of the device, tough or astringent tannins are softened and the wine becomes mellow and more harmonious.
• The Wine Whisk, $20 - The simplest device of all. An attractive stainless steel hand whisk that you dip in your glass of wine and whisk it around to immediately aerate your wine.
• The Catania Mezzo Wine Enhancer, $65 to $130 - This is a metallic disc that comes in copper and stainless steel styles. Crystals and metal are imbedded into this patented frequency technology to aerate and harmonize the wine. The bottle of wine is placed on the metallic disk.
• Rouge O2 Wine Breather, $30 - Created by UK company CellarDine, the Rouge O2 Electronic Wine Breather works by gently bubbling air through the wine bottle to release the wine's bouquet and flavor. According to the manufacturers it reduces the breathing time from an hour to just 1 minute. It requires 2 triple A batteries, which gives it enough power for about 230 bottles.
• Philip Stein Wine Wand, $325 to $500 - The wand is a glass tube with encapsulated glass crystals and uses imbedded natural frequency-based technologies. The wand is placed into a bottle or glass of red wine, where it accelerates the aeration process, allowing the wine to fully develop to its peak flavor in a fraction of the time it would usually take. Not cheap, but perhaps a nice gift for the wine geek who has everything.
So, quite a selection and at many different price points. And largely, they do aerate the wine. But would you buy one? Would you use it? Or, like so many gadgets, would it sit in a drawer and gather dust, while you continue the traditional way of decanting, or simply allow the wine to slowly aerate in your glass?
These aeration devices are widely available from internet sites such as Amazon.com, as well as wine accessory stores nationwide and their websites.
I would love to hear your comments.
Until next week!
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I'd love to hear some comments from the real wine-geeks here. My fiance and I put the Vinturi on our registry by a recommendation from a clerk at Sur La Table.
As Mary wrote, there are a few wines that benefit from aeration - but most red wines you are likely to encounter are ready to drink, and do not require, or even benefit from aeration. If you do have a wine that needs some aeration, you can simply decant it into a carafe aggressively enough that it splashes around a bit in the process.
As for the gizmo with "Crystals and metal imbedded into this patented frequency technology", if you buy one of those, I'd recommend sticking it on your forehead in hopes that it will "aerate and harmonize" your brain! (is that a rosé they're aerating and harmonizing in the photo above? Oh, please....)
Darn! Why didn't I think of that crystal based natural frequency $500 glass wand idea?!?
My brother-in-law has the Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator (shown above), and I don't know if it makes the wine taste much better, but he has fun using it... and we love listening to the "sucking filter" action. LOL
Harold McGee tested wine aeration devices a few months ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/dining/14curi.html
Some foodie friends of mine tried the Vinturi device at a wine store recently, with a nice bottle they had just purchased. They claimed it really worked; but I personally haven't tried it.
http://www.abreadaday.com/
My dad is the wine expert in the family, and he has the Vinturi. We did a taste test to see if we could tell a difference after using the Vinturi, and surprisingly most of us preferred the aerated version. I'm definitely no wine expert though. Totally agree with the comment above about the funny 'sucking' sound it makes when you aerate.
My parents bought the Vinturi (which I have dubbed "the slurper") and it does make a difference. It makes the wine noticeably less bitter, however, it depends on what kind of wine as to how much difference the aeration actually makes.
I've got the Vinturi and it really does work. It definitely takes the edge off of a freshly opened bottle of red wine. I've done unscientific taste tests and you can definitely notice the difference. I only use it on a freshly opened bottle, since the 1 day and 2 day (god forbid!) old bottles are already aerated. But anyways, I bought my sister and my parents one, and we all use it faithfully each time we open up a bottle. It even comes with a nice little velvet pouch and a little stand!
"most red wines you are likely to encounter are ready to drink, and do not require, or even benefit from aeration."
...sorry, but this is ridiculous statement. Young red wines (those under $20 per bottle) are generally higher in tannins and can benefit from aeration. Flavor will improve with as little as 15-20 minutes of air time. A young cabernet may need as much as an hour to get the most benefit. And older wine, however, say 6 or 8 years or more, should not be aerated for very long at all.
Tannins are the backbone in a wine that make for good aging. These flavors mellow out over time and are part of what makes for complex flavor. A red with weak tannins won't age well. The effect of aerating a young wine is a little bit like pre-aging it. Not exactly, but it's a good analogy.
My husband I received the Vinturi as a gift from my parents a few years back, and we can't imagine vino without it. The tanic reduction is so dramatic using the Vinturi that we love giving taste tests whenever someone new comes over to visit. If you entertain or serve large amounts of red wine, you can't go wrong with this little baby. We even take it on picnics in it's handy travel bag!!
I got a Wine Whisk as a gift with a bottle of wine. It's simple. It works amazingly fast as an aerator, just a few quick whisks does the job. It's a great bottle stopper. And it's a well-balanced great general purpose whisk. I love mine and highly recommend it.