Customer Reviews

Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator

5 star:		(577)
4 star:		(118)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Length:: 2:01 Mins

Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator
The Vinturi Wine Aerator is the longest selling and most popular wine aerator on the market. I give this product a favorable review in this short clip.

I bought one of these on a whim when the product launched just before Christmas, 2006. It seemed like a perfect - if unnecessary - stocking stuffer for my wife, since we're both wine enthusiasts. I never really felt these "gimmick" aerators did much that a solid 1/2 hour decanting couldn't do. Boy was I wrong.

The device itself is attractive, compact and solidly built. It appears to be a simple oblong plexiglass "funnel" with a rubber grip. There are two small channels in the center of the funnel, which look like "cracks" in the plastic (I've read product info that assures worried buyers these cracks are proper and unavoidable). Wine is poured through the top of the funnel, and immediately a suction sound is heard as the pouring draws air into the wine before it escapes out the bottom of the funnel. The aerator is easily held, and I've never had a problem with spills.

Now on to the "effect" of the Vinturi. I've been using the Vinturi for 5 months now, on a variety of wines ... from a bottle of "Two Buck Chuck", to a nice '98 Vietti Barolo, to a bottle of 97' Phelps Insignia. In every circumstance, with every wine, I've noticed a significant improvement in the quality of the wine when poured through the Vinturi, as opposed to tasted directly from bottle. The flavours are more blended, the finish is less acidic, and frankly, it has made most of the wines I drink a more pleasurable experience, from sniff to swallow. I've conducted several "blind" tastings with friends, and we all agree - this thing works.

If you're a serious wine drinker - or shopping for a wine drinker in your life - give this product a try. At $40, it's about the price of a decent California Cabernet, and will yield results for decades to come. I plan on picking up a few dozen this Christmas and giving them out as gifts to business clients.

Many of the reviewers here are claiming that the Vinturi works. Well, I was skeptical, yet I was curious enough to purchased one.

I began by pouring an ounce or two of a red wine directly into the glass, not using the aerator, then tasting the wine. Then I'd pour more of the same wine through the Vinturi and taste again. In most cases I believed I could taste a difference between the non-aerated and aerated wine. For a week or two I was quite impressed with the Vinturi; yet deep inside I was wondering whether the power of suggestion was influencing my assessment.

In order to objectively challenge the performance of the Vinturi, I performed a little experiment. I left the room and had my wife pour three glasses of red wine from the same bottle; two were poured without the aerator and one with the aerator. Once the bubbles from the aeration settled (30 seconds or so), my wife called me back into the room to perform the "blind tasting" to see if I could discern the wine which had been poured through the Vinturi.

It turns out that the Vinturi really does work. I was able to pick which wine of the three was aerated. All skepticism has been removed as far as I'm concerned. I've recommended the Vinturi to several of my wine drinking friends and they likewise have confirmed the effectiveness of the Vinturi's aeration.

There are two reasons why I don't give this product a five star rating. The first reason, as another reviewer has already noted, is that the wine must be carefully poured into the Vinturi at a specific rate. Pour too fast and the wine will overflow. Pour too slow and the Vinturi will run dry and won't aerate properly. It takes careful attention.

Second, the Vinturi will continue to drip wine after each use. It does come with a handy little holder which keeps the wine from running onto the table, but then the little holder needs to be washed after each use.

These concerns are small matters in the overall perspective. It really comes down to the tasting experience. If you enjoy tasting good red wines then these blemishes are small compromises to make.

After reading a number of reviews, it's obvious that a lot of people are convinced that the Vinturi Aerator does a good job of making wine taste better. I arranged a taste test of my own with three people. I poured two glasses, one aerated and one not and none of the three knew which was which. The verdict was unanimous among all three that one glass was better than the other and they actually chose the non-aerated version as the winner. Two of the three are wine afficianados and one is not so there was a variety of palettes involved.

Based on my test of this product, it appears to be an abject failure. Yet, dozens of people have written glowing reviews and a large number of them appear to have done blind taste tests of their own. Since I certainly don't believe that everyone else is lying (a conspiracy, that's it!) I can only surmise that some people may find the effect of aeration more pleasing than others.

My recommendation is simple. If you're interested in this product, see if you can try one at a friend's first or buy it from a place with a liberal return policy. That way you can decide for yourself whether it's an improvement or a waste of money.

I love wine, particularly reds, so when I received this Vinturi device, I couldn't wait to test it. In my youth, I had worked as a manager at a French restaurant with one of the top wine lists in the country, so I knew all too well the importance of allowing a fine wine to breathe, thus maximizing the bouquet and flavor through the oxidation. Now, of course, far removed from that life, I just like my wines to be enjoyable.

The first time I tried my Vinturi, it was a disaster. I didn't want to try it out on an expensive wine for fear of ruining it, so I chose a inexpensive red wine, an Australian Shiraz. Because I used it in a restaurant with ten people at the table watching , I tilted the device toward me so I could reach it, and poured. Red wine spilled everywhere. As the wine passed through the device, it sounded like a soda machine that was close to empty. Although I could taste the difference between a glass poured right out of the bottle and one poured through the Vinturi, the difference was barely noticeable. Was it worth the spilled wine and the only slight taste difference? Suffice it to say that I was ready to bury it at the bottom of a drawer.

But then . . .

I decided to give the Vinturi another try. I knew that the spillage most likely had to do with how I had held the device and/or the bottle. My second attempt, on a better red, a Rhone with a relatively recent vintage, worked much better. I held the Vinturi straight up and down, and poured from a standing position rather than reaching across a table. The only spill came from a few drips at the bottom after I removed it, and even then, they collected in the included holder, not on the table. The wine, which needed a few more years in the bottle, was noticeably changed after it had been poured through the Vinturi. The tannins were softened, and the flavor enhanced. However, it was not until I used the Vinturi on a big California blend, a high-quality red that needed another five to eight years in the bottle, that the most noticeable change occurred. Without the Vinturi, the taste was tight, high in tannin (which lends that dry, pucker-y sensation), and definitely too young despite the obvious underlying complexity. The Vinturi opened that wine up so that it tasted as though it had been aged for another five years. The difference was marked. I was sold.

The device itself is a relatively heavy, lucite object with a rubberized grip for holding. The air holes on the sides create turbulence inside the cup and funnel to aerate the wine as it passes through. The box comes with a black rubberized holder (essential to catch the drips after using it) and a pouch to protect it from scratches. The design is both simple and oddly beautiful.

The Vinturi is obviously manufactured for oenophiles, people who regularly drink high-quality red wines and can taste the difference. Don't bother getting this if you're primarily a white wine drinker (whites don't need the kind of breathing that reds do) or if you always buy wine that is ready to drink. Since less expensive wines are generally sold to be drinkable immediately, they are not affected the same way that wines destined for cellars are. And there's no way that any device can make a so-so wine into a good one. That happens at the winery, never at the table.

-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

At first I doubted it but my son wanted desperately to buy me a present for the holidays so I told him to go for it. It does everything it says it does and I use it by the glass or with a decanter.

The first one was purchased online but now some wine shops in Florida are begining to carry them. Works with reds and whites, and immediately softens those tannis or acidity depending on the wine.

One side effect is that it introduced so many tiny microscopic bubbles into a Chardonay I was drinking that it made it slighly cloudy. Normally this is bad but since I detest the acidity of a Chardonay it was a totally welcome relief and the wine was sooooo much better!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - I have one in each car and one at home, I never drink wine without it and everyone who tries one - buys one!

Let me start by saying that I am only an amateur wine aficionado. I purchased one of these at a winery in Napa and have not been able to put it down for the past four months (I even take it with me to restaurants). It works great for reds and is very easy to use and clean. I ordered a few more for Christmas gifts. It is the next must have for wine lovers.

I am always skeptical of "hobby toys". These sorts of things generally sound nice as a gift. However, in reality, they either don't do anything in reality or are useless to the person with the hobby.

This product really does what it says. It puts a lot of air into a glass of wine as you pour it. It does seem to instantly decant the glass of wine for you. It is easy to use, and almost as important, easy to clean. The rubber "holder" is invaluable, as the Vinturi will have some wine drips that you don't want spilled on your floor somewhere.

Many wines improve with decanting. After 1 month, we have continued to use the Vinturi and prefer using it to both our decanter or going with no decanting. I recommend this product to others.

Saw this item advertised in a magazine just before the Christmas holidays and decided it would make a nice Christmas gift for my son-in-law and my husband (both avid red wine lovers). They were both suprised by the gift as well as full of praise for how well it performed.

When we had the neighbors in for our holiday party, my husband was eager to demonstrate his new "toy". All the red wine drinkers were quick to admit how much using this device added to the aroma and flavor of the wine and wanted to know where they could purchase one.

We purchased this for ourselves in December and for some wines that are closed it makes a nice difference. Our local wine store guru says he tries it on young wines that are highly rated but need more time - in some cases, lots more time - in the bottle and it makes them taste as luscious as they are bound to do sometime in the future, but we haven't broken open one of our "keeping wines" yet. Obviously, it's not going to make a $10 Rosemont Cab/Merlot blend taste like a Rubicon, but it does smooth out some of the harsher edges and open up the fruit. We take it with us to parties now because the slurping, sucking sound it makes as you pour through it is fun, AND it helps make everyday wines better!