About wine aerators...

[winelover1]

My buddy recently shared on his fb wall about this decantus aerator, to which I was pretty indifferent and even laughed at the name of the product (decantus??). So, he actually brought it to one of our meetings, and let me try it. What's funny is it actually did improve the flavor of wine. But I am not sure if it was due to some sort of bias. I'll try doing a blind experiment with different wine samples and a lot of friends so we see whether these accessories actually do have a positive effect on wine. Have any of you guys done this kind of experiment before? Or, what is your experience with aerators?

 

[codeman]

I have a venturi (spelling?) and I like it a lot, big difference in flavor and aroma on wines that should 'breathe'

 

[calvin]

A friend of mine has a wine aerator as well. At first I thought it was a gimmick. After trying it I think it does indeed improve some wines

 

[MDH]

Sulfites, or byproducts of post-bottling fermentation (e.g. bacterial) will react in small quantities producing slight off smells when wine is first opened. These smells will make it into the wine glass. Fine aeration mostly removes these off-smells, allowing the grape to shine. The reason it's not done before the wine is bottled, of course, is because it would also remove the SO2 that's desired in the first place to protect the wine, hence why wine is always aerated right before being poured.

 

[richmke]

I remember articles about allowing wines to breathe (decant and wait an hour). The takeaway is that some wines benefit and some wines do not. I don't think it hurt any wines.

 

[DoctorCAD]

They do work, but not on all wine types.

 

[winelover1]

Sulfites, or byproducts of post-bottling fermentation (e.g. bacterial) will react in small quantities producing slight off smells when wine is first opened. These smells will make it into the wine glass. Fine aeration mostly removes these off-smells, allowing the grape to shine. The reason it's not done before the wine is bottled, of course, is because it would also remove the SO2 that's desired in the first place to protect the wine, hence why wine is always aerated right before being poured.

That's quite interesting. I actually saw in the page I linked above something about the aerator reducing sulfites. So that explains a lot of the wine aerator function and why they work with certain wines.