Simply put, the purpose of a wine aerator is to get the wine to interact with air to speed up oxidation and evaporation. While you can sit back and wait for your wine to naturally aerate, or aerate your wine before serving, the aerator exposes the wine to air very quickly to speed up oxidation and evaporation.
A wine aerator oxidizes wine. This process is called aeration. Wine should be oxidized because exposure to air causes wine to taste better. Undesirable compounds form when wine is allowed to remain in the bottle. The aerator ‘livens up’ the wine. Mere exposure to air will provide the same aeration but more slowly.
When the wine is exposed to air by passing it through an aerator, the excess ethanol and sulfites are oxidized and evaporated. The goal is to expose the wine to air, and one of the most basic ways to aerate is to simply swirl the wine in the glass.
Simply put, aeration is a way to shake a wine just enough to reveal its full bouquet. However, in an aerator, the wine is poured into a funnel-shaped device that fills the wine with air as it passes from the bottle into the glass. Many aerators allow you to pour wine directly from the bottle into the glass. Because the wine aerator fits right into the bottle, the process can be done with one hand.
How to Use a Wine Aerator
Insert a wine aerator into the end of the bottle and pour the wine directly into the glass. You can pour the wine into a decanter, use an aerator, or pour the wine into a large container.
Instead of pouring the bottle into the decanter and leaving it there, you can enjoy your wine from the aerator right away. Instead of pouring an entire bottle into a decanter and potentially throwing away wine you can’t finish (which I admit rarely happens), a wine aerator allows you to aerate the wine by the glass. Another easy way to determine if a wine needs to be aerated is to aerate a small portion of the wine by shaking it in a glass and doing a simple taste test to see if the aerated sample tastes better than the sample straight out of the bottle.
No matter how much you paid, where the grapes were harvested, or what kind of wine a bottle of wine is from, you can try using an aerator before drinking it to decide if you — your personal palette — feel it enhances the flavor.
The Advantages of a Wine Aerator
Aerating a wine bottle won’t turn it into a more expensive wine bottle, but it will make cheaper wine taste much better. An aerator paired with a decanter will equalize the price of your $30 bottle of wine, rather than taste like a $20 bottle. If your average price for a bottle of wine is $15 or less, then it’s definitely not worth the money. an aerator that costs the same.
I would recommend battery powered vented aerators (no CO2 unless you have a lot of money to burn), easy to operate, wine lids, stylish and nice looking (it’s always on your counter after all), priced from $45 to $65 For the dollar, there are many inexpensive wine “bubblers” that allow you to pour wine simply through what looks like a funnel. Some wine drinkers swear by running cheap wine through an aerator, which enhances the flavor and makes the shape more like an expensive bottle.
Less expensive aerators tend to provide short-term aromatic changes on the first bottling of the wine and generally do not make any significant changes. High-quality aerators can change the aromas and textures of wines, and these effects are preserved, as they are when the wine is decanted at the available time.
Aerating Can Alter Wine Flavor
Depending on the wine and the type of aerator used, such as portable, cap, or decanter, the process can slightly alter the flavor of the wine. Aeration does not significantly alter the flavor profile and aroma of young wines. In particular, aeration can soften tannins in young wines by reducing high levels of carbon dioxide. A frother can also help soften some of the flavors in the wine, making it more palatable.
Aeration plays a huge role in improving your drinking experience; First of all, it gives the wine a wonderful aroma. Aeration enhances the pleasure of drinking wine by releasing its aroma and intensifying the taste. Aeration in general aims to improve the wine, not just change its characteristics. Aeration of the wine allows the taster to experience the whole character of the wine, enhancing its flavor and aroma/bouquet/aroma.
Since most of a wine’s flavor comes from its aroma, aeration has a big impact on both aroma and taste. The essence of an aerator is to expose a glass of wine to oxygen, enhancing the taste and aroma of the wine. The purpose of instruments sold as wine “aerators” is not to control, but to maximize exposure to air and oxygen. Aerators, like decanters, are designed to mix air with wine.
Wine Aerators Are Great for Parties
Wine aerators are great party gadgets, but the vast majority of them don’t affect the flavor of the wine a few minutes after the wine sits in the glass.
In fact, just opening a bottle of wine technically ventilates it; only aeration takes much longer due to the narrow mouth of the bottle, which limits the wine’s access to oxygen. Indeed, wine aeration attempts to replicate the natural aging process of wine and tries to recover the lost years bottled in the cellar within one hour of exposure to open oxygen.
Red wines with earthy flavors, especially cellar aged ones, are more likely to benefit from aeration. However, not all wines do well with aeration, especially whites, as mentioned earlier. Because aeration will greatly enhance your experience with certain wines, restaurants offer wine aeration for you as part of the corkage fee.
