Have you ever seen someone pop a cork to let the wine "breathe"? Just how much air could possibly move around in the very thin neck of a bottle, and how much surface area is being exposed to make any difference at all to 750ml of wine? Very very little.

If I need a wine to breathe, I'll pour it into a wide-middle decanter. The aeration of pouring helps to open up the wine, and the very large surface area in the decanter lets air have contact with a lot of the wine. But I really don't see how simply removing a cork can do much of anything at all.

What do you think?

I prefer to drink my wine at an age its ready to be consumed. I open th ebottle shortly before dinner & pour the first glass. They get aeration, and the wine remaining in the bottle has a larger surface area and smaller amount.

I rarely decant, maybe once a year, because I'm too lazy. I por my old reds carefully and if some sediment gets in my glass, well it soon settles to the bottom.

When we were at the Shiraz tasting last night Bob seemed to get the end of every bottle, he had a lot of sediment in his glass He just drank carefully to not get it into his mouth.

Pouring a glass seems like it's much more helpful than just popping the cork! Those duck decanters are so pretty, but they're a pain to clean. If they made them dishwasher safe maybe you'd use them more often

Has anyone tried a vinturi yet? I had never seen or heard of them, but my daughter bought me one recently as a gift. I have yet to use it because I don't have any red wines open at the moment (I try to drink one bottle, top to bottom, at a time ... and currently I only have a Chenin Blanc open). Its a newer device, for use in place of a decanter, to aerate wine. It features an in-line pass-thru ... you hold it over a wine glass and pour the wine through the vinturi, and gravity causes it to flow thru carefully designed channels that draw the right amount of air in ... in the time it takes to pour a glass.

The package reports that an independent double-blind tasting (conducted by Vinquiry Wine Analytics out of Napa) found that the same bottle of wine, treated with vinturi, was higher in flavor intensity and mouthfeel ... higher in red color intensity and aroma instensity ... more true to type ... and of higher quality.

Not sure how easy it will clean up. Once I try it out I'll let you know ... maybe include a picture.

I think you should do some blind taste tests and see if you can tell a difference!

Most wines that people drink are meant to be drunk immediately, so they aren't meant to breathe. So I can see this causing harm to some wines, and help to others.

Ha Ha ... I'm not sure if I could tell the difference between a Cabernet and a Merlot, with or without the vinturi. My palate has a lot to learn when it comes to wine. But if I try it, I will post results here. I pretty much figured it might benefit merlots, cabernets, chiantis and pinot noirs ... not sure what else. Are port wines better with aeration?