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Why Do You Aerate Wine? [3 Great Reasons to Aerate]

Breathe a new lease of life into your favorite wines with an aerator. Learn what they do and how they do it in our guide to wine aeration.

I used to be a skeptic when it came to wine aeration but now I've had my head turned after conducting my own blind tasting.

It's an often overlooked part of serving wine but it plays a really important role that has several key benefits.

Keep reading to see the results of the blind tasting, but let's begin with some reasons why you should think about using a wine aerator when serving your favorite wines.

3 Reasons Why a Wine Aerator Should Be in Your Cupboard

If you're on the fence about wine aeration you won't be after reading these reasons!

1. It makes wine taste better.

A wine aerators main role is make sure your wine is exposed to as much oxygen as possible before you drink it.

Now, high levels of oxidation can be really harmful to wine while in the bottle, but in those fleeting moments while the bottle is open and before the wine makes its way to your mouth, oxidation is a good thing.

But why?

Oxidation helps to remove some ethanol and sulfites from the wine by aiding evaporation. This softens flavors and aromas (and helps to release even more) by reducing sulphuric and medicinal notes.

See which aerator we'd choose over all others in our buyer's guide.

2. It allows your wine to breathe at rapid speed!

We all know that wine should be allowed to breathe before its devoured but it's annoying having to wait right?

With an aerator there's no waiting. Once your wine has been aerated it's ready to go. You've just condensed thirty minutes of aeration in a decanter into 30 seconds with an aerator!

3. It's a more efficient way to drink.

A wine aerator allows you to aerate as you go. 

Only have time for one glass? You only need to pour one when using an aerator. 

When using a decanter, you should pour the whole bottle. That means you should probably finish the whole bottle at one sitting.

The Ultimate Experiment - Putting "Aeration" to the Test

I used to get a little suspicious when people would tell me that you “must decant wine”, or you “must let your wine breathe”, so I had to find out myself and decided to run a little experiment.

The idea of using a traditional decanter and having to wait 30 minutes didn’t appeal to me, so I got myself a wine aerator called the Vintorio.

This is a neat looking aerator that fits directly on top of the bottle and allows you to pour by the glass.

I like to keep it as simple as possible, and didn't want something with all the bells & whistles.

As part of the experiment, I also got myself three bottles of red wine (a Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, and Pinot Noir).

This was so that my wife and I could conduct a blind test on each to see if we could taste a difference between the aerated and non-aerated wine. We were both a little skeptical at the start!

Out of the three wines that we both tried, my wife preferred the aerated version for all three, while I preferred the aerated version of the Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.

I found it difficult to really tell the difference on the Pinot Noir, but funnily enough the flavor of the Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz was very noticeably different - and in a good way.

The wines had opened up a lot more, with the flavor and aromas coming through a lot better.

Seems like that little wine aerator did the trick, and we’ve since been using it on all the red wines that we drink.

We have given a couple to friends and family that drink wine as well, and they seem to enjoy it also.

So if you’re a wine drinker, I recommend getting an aerator and giving it a shot.

There are a large number of them to choose from, but the Vintorio is one that worked well for us, while being pretty affordable. 

Do you use an aerator as part of your wine drinking routine? What essential kit do you use? Let us know down in the comments section!