Recent wines tasted on CellarTracker

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Vinturi red wine aerator - great little gadget

I read up about this clever item before adding it to my wishlist at Amazon.co.uk this Christmas. Fortunately my parents dutifully bought it for me as a gift and I had the chance to test it out over the holidays. It really does make a difference to a red wine, although I think the effect is more obvious with heavier, or more tannic wines that are robust enough for aging.

It opens up the aroma and softens any rough tannins from younger wines just enough, thereby avoiding  any need to decant. I suppose it could be used to open up a whole bottle as you decant it, but so far I've only used it to pour by the glass.



On opening the wine, just pour it into the glass through the Vinturi aerator and it will bubble and gurgle amusingly, all the while introducing just the right amount of air to the wine via a clever capillary action, which takes advantage of the Venturi effect and Bernoulli's Principle, something I recall learning all about at university when I studied fluid dynamics!

At £35.40 from Amazon.co.uk (current price as at 6th January 2010) this is an ideal gift for a loved one who enjoys red wine - it really saves having to wait for a good quality wine to aerate!

I am sure there are detractors who will consider this sort of device is an improper way to treat good wine - my message to them: don't knock it until you've tried it!

2 comments:

  1. I got this for Christmas, too. I use the aerator and pour it into a decanter rather than by the glass. Works great!! It also has a filter that can remove sediment.

    In the US it costs $29.97 at amazon.com.

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  2. First, you must understand that as wine breathes, it releases to all kinds of flavors and aromas. In the past, wine connoisseurs had to use the very time consuming process of using a decanter. This was to allow the wine have time to breathe outside of the bottle so that it would allow the full aromas and flavors to come through. However, this nifty new gadget called a wine aerator has eliminated the need for using the decanter process. By holding the aerator over the glass and pouring the wine through it, the right amount of air is mixed with the wine in just the right amount of time.

    decantus wine aerator

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