Wine aerators are all the rage in wine accessories. Although when you store wine, you want to protect it from exposure to oxygen, once you’re ready to drink it, a little oxygen can help improve flavor and even texture. It is claimed that a wine aerator can bring out the proper flavors in a wine and some even say that it can turn a bad wine into a good wine. What do wine aerators actually accomplish?
Letting Wine Breath
When people let wine rest to “give it time to breathe,” this is what they are talking about. Letting wine breathe is letting some oxygen be absorbed into it. Some wine connoisseurs call this “opening up” the wine but this can also refer to a highly tannic wine that has been properly aged (mostly red wines).
When a waiter asks whether they should pull the cork to let the wine breathe, this is what they mean. Traditionally, wine lovers have opened up bottles of wine far in advance of pouring, say, a half hour or even an hour before drinking.
But simply pulling a cork and letting the wine bottle sit is not a good way to aerate wine. Only a small bit of the wine gets exposed to oxygen, basically a dish just under the opening of the bottle. Gerald Asher, wine columnist for Gourmet magazine, once called this practice ‘useless wine lore.’ Most wine experts tend to agree.
This is also the reason people swirl their wine glasses — to agitate the wine and get air into the wine faster. Some also let wine sit in the glass for a while. The act of pouring the wine, agitating it, and giving it some time in the air is almost certainly better than letting it sit in the bottle and then drinking immediately if, that is, the wine will benefit from ‘airing’ at all.
Wine connoisseurs have been a much better but very simple aeration device for many years: the decanter. A fancy crystal wine decanter is not just for pretentiousness’ sake (although it is quite pretentious), transferring the wine from the bottle to the decanter agitates it and introduces oxygen more quickly.
However, when you pour wine from the glass, as mentioned, you are already exposing it to oxygen, in just the same way so the extra step of decanting may not be all that beneficial. In fairness to decanting, though, it is used just as often for older wines that may have sediment collected at the bottom of the bottle.
Decanting the wine allows you to pour out the wine carefully, leaving behind the sediment. If you continually pour into glasses from a bottle with sediment, the sediment will become more mixed with the wine making it hard to prevent it from getting into the glass along with the wine.
You are not likely to have this problem unless you are able to purchase something that has been in the bottle at least ten years. It takes quite a long time for any wine to develop deposits in the bottle. But, for older wines like this, especially vintage ports, decanting is almost a must.
If a wine does have sediment, then it’s best to have it standing upright for at least 24 hours before pouring it. 1
Decanting Older Wines
Images of sommeliers carefully decanting older wines in almost a ritualistic fashion is what makes folks think wine decanting is a difficult and daunting process. Even for older wines, it’s not that difficult. If you are pouring in a bright room, it’s even easier.
Otherwise, it is best to have a source of light like a candle or a lamp. Again, let the bottle remain upright for a sufficient period of time for the sediments to settle to the bottom, at least 24 hours. Then:
- Hold the bottle in such a way that you can see the light shining through the shoulder of the bottle as you carefully pour.
- Then, pour slowly into a wine decanter, wine carafe, or other clean glass container watching for sediments to appear in the shoulder of the bottle.
- Toward the end of the pouring, you will see solid bits starting to show up in the shoulder of the bottle. Once this happens, stop pouring.
Other than watching for sediment to appear and stopping, there is nothing complicated about the process.
While this is not a fool-proof method, the shoulder of the bottle offers a clue as to whether a wine will ‘throw sediments.’ That is, wine bottles with shoulders are designed to catch the sediments as the wine is poured. Examples are red Bordeaux, Burgundy, or Barolo.
Decanting Younger Wines
Decanting younger wines could be termed as ‘decanting most wines.’ Here is the process:
- Open the wine and pour it into a decanter, glass pitcher, or whatever you have on hand.
- That’s it. You don’t have to treat it like it’s a bottle full of nitroglycerine.
Since pouring wine into glasses and letting the glass sit is probably as effective, there may be little point in decanting a young, sediment-free wine. Since the whole point is to aerate the wine, carefully pouring the wine in a little trickle like you so often see is not necessary at all. Just pour it with gusto.
The question is whether there is a better and more effective way to quickly aerate wines. This is where the wine aerator comes in.
Wine Aerators like Vinturi
Fancy wine aeration devices like the Vinturi V1010 Essential Wine Aerator claim to accelerate ‘airing out’ process and introduce more oxygen into the wine almost instantly.
The Vinturi, in particular, claims it enhances the flavor, bouquet, and finish of any wine, but they have separate devices for red and white wines. Vinturi also claims that its instant aeration process mixes the “proper amount of air in the right amount of time.” As you pour wine through the device, it draws in water through a hole in the side.
This is similar to how other aerators work.
- Accelerate a wine’s aeration process with the Vinturi Red Wine aerator
- The Vinturi Red Wine aerator features patented technology and a stylish, yet classic look
- A must-have for entertaining, the Vinturi Red Wine Aerator is perfect for quickly aerating an entire bottle of wine, or one glass at a time
- The award-winning Red Wine aerator from Vinturi opens and develops red wines in the time it takes to pour a glass - no more waiting as with traditional decanters
- Listen for the sound - this sound is unique to all Vinturi aerators, and lets you know that you have an authentic Vinturi aerator
Prices pulled from the Amazon Product Advertising API on:
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Whether these wine aerator devices work or not is quite subjective. The difference between an aerated and a non-aerated wine may be so subtle that many of us will not notice the difference. As well, it may work better on red wines than white, and the style of wine may have a lot to do with the effect.
How oxygen affects a wine, how much oxygen is enough, and how much is too little, is bound to be different for different wines, and since there are hundreds and hundreds of wine styles, the true effect of aerators would probably be too complex to pin down, even if your experience of the results weren’t subjective.
Despite the subjectivity of the result, these devices are hot sellers. The Vinturi is a best seller at Amazon, with thousands of positive reviews.
- WINE SAVER - By using Vacu Vin, you can enjoy a glass of fresh, delicious wine whenever you want without worrying about wasting any. Its an easy way to get the most out of your wine collection!
- AIR REMOVAL - The wine preservation system uses an air remover to extract the air from your opened bottle of wine, preventing oxidation and ensuring your wine stays fresh for longer
- USAGE - To use, simply insert the wine stopper into the bottle and pump until you hear the patented click - this signals an airtight seal has been achieved
- QUALITY STANDARD - All Vacu Vin wine savers, vacuum pumps, bottle stoppers, and wine pourers are made in the Netherlands, so you can trust that youre getting a high-quality product
- REUSABLE - The wine stoppers are not only environmentally friendly, but also cost-effective for wine enthusiasts who want to keep their opened bottles of wine fresh for longer periods of time
Prices pulled from the Amazon Product Advertising API on:
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Wine Pumps
Although a little oxygen may enhance a wine, a lot of oxygen will destroy it.
Letting wine sit around in the air for hours will start tasting sour and flat. Oxidation is the great enemy of wine, and this is why once you open a wine, you need to drink it quickly, even though you cork it between each pour.
Each time you open the bottle, you expose the wine to oxygen. As well, you introduce more space into the bottle, where air will remain, exposing a half-empty bottle to more oxygen than a full one. The same is true of liquors like whiskey (Vinturi makes a “spirit aerator”).
For this reason, there exists the opposite of the wine aerator: the wine pump.
Wine pumps, such as the Vacu Vin Wine Saver, are designed to attach to the top of the bottle and suck the air out, creating a vacuum so that an opened bottle of wine lasts much longer than it otherwise would have.
Pouring wine into a smaller container that can be sealed, to some extent, may also help, as the smaller container can be filled with liquid, thus reducing the air space. However, pouring the wine from one container to another will mix more oxygen with the wine, so the advantage of reducing air space may be balanced by the disadvantage of pouring, and thus agitating and aerating the wine.
Many people say they cannot tell the difference when using a wine aerator, while others swear by it.
Not All Wines Benefit From Airing
The reason that it’s possible to aerate your wine with a wine aerator, by decanting, or by letting your glass sit, agitation, etc. but not being able to tell the difference, is because not all wines will benefit from this airing process.
Most white wines will receive no additional benefit from airing and should be enjoyed right out of the bottle, immediately, Many red wines will benefit from at least some airing. Younger wines with a very high tannic content will mellow out though the introduction of some oxygen. Here are examples of wines that may taste better after aeration:
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- Bourdeaux
- Malbec
- Shiraz
- Burgundy
- Barbera
- Montepulciano
- wines from Northern Rhône Valley
- dessert wines
- Many Italian wines
- Many Spanish wines
Among Experts, Wine Aeration Is Debatable
When it comes to wine, it is always difficult to get a straight answer. That is because everything centers on the taste and experience of the drinker, and this is always a subjective experience. We can certainly set up experiments to measure how much oxygen a wine receives, but we can’t make everyone agree on whether the result is better!
Therefore, even among wine experts, there are those who think that aerating wine is, in a word, poppycock. While some experts believe that exposing certain wines to air ahead of time will ‘mellow out’ some of the harsh flavors, usually due to the bitter tannins, others say that exposing the wine to oxygen so far in advance causes it to lose some of its aromas.
If you drink younger wines with harsher tannic profiles, you’ll have to experiment for yourself. Only you can be the judge of whether you think there is a benefit to aerating the wine, either with a wine aerator, through decanting, or just pouring the glass and letting it sit. 2
Keep one other point in mind. While most reds are meant to be served ‘at room temperature’ this temperature is traditionally much cooler than we think. If your room is 75° F and you let a red wine sit and become that warm, it may be too warm to taste its best! Yes, most people drink their red wine too warm. This may be another advantage of a wine aerator as you can cool your wine down a bit to the proper temperature (around 65° F or a bit cooler to start) and then aerate it quickly so that it can be enjoyed before it is too warm.
Red Wine Should Never be Chilled?
You May Be Interested in These Articles
- Brenner, Leslie. Fear of Wine: An Introductory Guide to the Grape. Bantam Books, 1995.
- Harding, Julia, and Jancis Robinson. The Oxford Companion To Wine. Oxford University Press, 2023.