I purchased one of those aerate-as-you-pour wine doohickies the other day, I think under the premise that buying it would get me free shipping on a book I wanted to order. I am a cynic, but it was an extra-cheap price that day so I figured it couldn't hurt to try. I like the concept of decanting only what goes into your glass, since as a single person that's the only amount I usually need, and I like the concept of instant decanting since my patience is generally stretched to its limit by the time I get home from work in need of a glass of wine. Now, the marketing campaign is full of lies, including the idea that decanting always makes wine taste better (I'm not going to get into a wine-snob rant, but let's just say there's a reason I didn't pull one of the bottles from my cellar that has been aging and is ready to drink when I went to test this thing...), but the product itself is pretty cool. I decided to use the 2007 Catena Malbec that we all loved at our first Sommelier Smackdown for my taste test, knowing that it is indeed a bit tight when you first open it.
This definitely wouldn't be the doohicky for people who are obsessed with the aesthetics of the wine experience. (You know those people... The ones who refuse to drink screw-cap wines because pulling the cork out of the bottle is so fundamentally important to their enjoyment of the wine? Or am I the only one who has met those people? They're truly obnoxious...) The reason for this is that the doohicky makes a ridiculous gurgling noise while aerating the wine as you pour. This is, of course, how it gets the job done, but it still sounds rather odd... Anyway, I tried a side-by-side comparison of aerated vs. straight-from-the-bottle:
Can't you just see the difference? No? I can't either... But I could definitely taste the difference. It's that exact same beautiful thing that happens when you decant a tight wine. All of a sudden it can open up on your palate and you get the whole flavor profile and lovely finish, rather than having all of that truncated by tannins. I totally love this wine even more now. Thumbs up.
This definitely wouldn't be the doohicky for people who are obsessed with the aesthetics of the wine experience. (You know those people... The ones who refuse to drink screw-cap wines because pulling the cork out of the bottle is so fundamentally important to their enjoyment of the wine? Or am I the only one who has met those people? They're truly obnoxious...) The reason for this is that the doohicky makes a ridiculous gurgling noise while aerating the wine as you pour. This is, of course, how it gets the job done, but it still sounds rather odd... Anyway, I tried a side-by-side comparison of aerated vs. straight-from-the-bottle:
Can't you just see the difference? No? I can't either... But I could definitely taste the difference. It's that exact same beautiful thing that happens when you decant a tight wine. All of a sudden it can open up on your palate and you get the whole flavor profile and lovely finish, rather than having all of that truncated by tannins. I totally love this wine even more now. Thumbs up.
3 comments:
With how little I know about wine I'm not sure I would be even able to taste the difference, but I sure like that photo.
Refined palate or not, you would definitely be able to taste it... It's one of those things where, even if you didn't know what you were looking for, you would be like "Damn. Why does this wine taste so much more awesome all of a sudden?" =D
I'll second emmo's assertion: It matters very little if you're "knowledgeable". Side by side, you can tell. And doing the side by side thing has the added benefit of educating your pallet...all of a sudden you know what the hell people are talking about when they say "tight".
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