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How to Drink Better: The answer depends on what you are hoping to achieve when you open a bottle of wine
How to Drink Better: The answer depends on what you are hoping to achieve when you open a bottle of wineHyper-decanting or hyper-aerating a wine has become a thing online, with various experts arguing it will make your glass of wine taste exponentially better.
When we swirl our wine around in a glass or pour it into a decanter, we are not simply being pretentious . Bringing the wine into contact with air gently releases the aromas and flavours, and softens any astringent, drying tannins. You can also pour it through a hand-held gadget called an aerator.
This involves pouring the wine through the small machine, which sloshes it around a little and brings it into contact with more air. I tried it a few years ago and tasted a marginal difference, if any. More recently the internet has been getting very excited about hyper-decanting wine. A gentleman by the name of Nathan Myhrvold, formerly chief technology officer with Microsoft, came up with the idea.
You empty some wine into your kitchen blender and switch it on for 30-60 seconds. He argues – and many on the internet agree with him – that this speeds up the aerating process and makes your wine taste better, smoother, less tannic and fruitier. It’s meant to be almost as if it had been sitting in a decanter for a few hours. Does it work?
I put it to the test. I selected a fairly young tannic red from Bordeaux as that was the most likely to show a difference and served it cool so the tannins would stand out more. You could use a stick blender but I used a Nutribullet and gave it 45 seconds. The wine went very frothy and pink at first, but the bubbles died after a few seconds.
The two samples did taste different. The aerated sample was softer and certainly less tannic and the fruit seemed riper. To me, the standard bottle tasted more like a Bordeaux, and those tannins faded when accompanied by some lamb chops. So, yes it does make a difference, and if I had an inexpensive, young, very tannic red wine, I might use it.
Otherwise I am very happy to swirl, sniff and sip and enjoy the wine as it slowly reveals itself over dinner.
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