South African Wine Information Centre
Click here to visit Franschhoek Cellar website
 

WineNews | latest south african wine related news


« go back to WineNews


Ask me anything darlings
 


"Is oxygen bad for wine?"
11 February 2013  by Shante Hutton, wine.co.za
Dear Chard O’Nay,

I keep seeing all these contraptions that ‘air’ your wine.
Isn’t oxygen bad for a wine and if not, should I be using one of these tools?

Many thanks,

Ariana

Dear Ariana,

The contraptions you speak of are called aerators and whilst I’m more of a fan of a using a good ol’ decanter, many people swear by them even if they do look like weapons found in a Sci-fi movie.

Oxygen may be the culprit in aging but for wine that has just had its cork popped or lid unscrewed, it allows it to ‘breathe’ thus stimulating the aromas and mellowing the flavours. Where an aerator comes in handy most is with a young wine that, when straight out of the bottle, can be a little harsh and in need of air to soften it. As opposed to pouring your wine into a decanter which then needs time to rest, an aerator works instantaneously and doesn’t give you the hassle of cleaning the awkward shaped decanter.

I must add though that no amount of ‘airing’ will help a bad wine and older wines also won’t benefit as well as a younger counterpart.

YuppieChef has a large range of Aerators and other wine gadgets and they deliver for free so it works out well as a Valentine's gift for a wine lover.

Ciao,

Chard
 
This article has been read 1510 times.

Aerating glasses TrevorG - 04 February 2013
Saw a product in the form of a glass that has grooves inside the bowl that apparently ensures aeration when swirling.


  USE THE FORM BELOW TO ADD A COMMENT
Please fill in ALL the fields below - your name, a short heading and then let us have your views in the comment box.
name
email
heading
comment
 
Due to the evil of spam we must unfortunately ask you to enter
the variety on the left into the box below.
 
  cookies MUST be enabled in your browser
news flashesadd a newsflash   latest videosadd a video
»Decanter World Wine Awards 2013
»Van Loveren releases their first Pinot Noir
»Solms-Delta will Showcase @ The Good Food & Wine Show Cape Town
 
»Klein Constantia - Vin De Constance
»Waterford Wine Estate Stellenbosch
»A video about the place that inspired Arniston Bay wines
todays news
latest photo albums add a photo album

The article above is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License
You may copy, re-use or re-print any of this information as long as wine.co.za is quoted as source.
Any statements made or opinions expressed are the legal responsibility of the AUTHOR,
and do not necessarily reflect the views of WineNet (PTY) Ltd. or its sponsors.
22143