Aeration: One Key to Great Tasting Wines

I have been known to uncork a bottle of wine and immediately pour it into a glass for to drink. Probably not the best approach, although that is how most vineyards do it with their wines when they are trying to sell them. 

Pouring the Wine into
the Decanter

Decanting really makes a wine taste better as does opening the bottle about an hour before you want to drink it--like I can really think that far in advance.

The greatest decanter/aerator that I have found is a gift I received for Christmas, it is the Menu Winebreather Carafe. I have aerators and I have a decanter, but I have found that I actually use this aerator because not sonly does it work, but it is fun to use. AND, it can be used on multiple bottles, unlike a regular decanter.

Returning the Wine to
the Bottle

The fun part is that the wine bottle is attached to the carafe and turned upside down, whereupon all of the wine runs into the carafe and is aerated--infused with air, during the process. It takes only about two minutes and the wine is immeasurable improved. But wait, there's more, instead of leaving the wine in the carafe it can be returned to the wine bottle for serving. This frees up the carafe to aerate additional bottles of wine. I usually find that when my friends are over that we have three or four different wines open to accommodate their tastes and this carafe can do the job for all of them. 

CAUTION: Do not use this aerator for unfiltered wines. These are wines that have sediment in the bottle. Using this decanter for unfiltered wines will cause the wines to become cloudy and may add unfavorable flavors to the wine. Don't worry, most wines these days are filtered, but you should always check. Use a traditional decanter or a hand aerator for unfiltered wines.

RECOMMENDATION: Every wine lover needs gadgets and this one should be in the wine tool box. Average cost is about $50 on line. A great gift idea!

-- Bob and Christina Doan, Elkridge, MD