Wine Aerator & Wine Accessories

April 5, 2010  |   Posted in Blog Articles, Wine Accessories   |   0 Comments  

Here we compared three wine accessories and how they affected the taste and aroma of wine.

 

Vinturi Wine Aerator
Clef Du Vin
The Wine Clip

 

First we needed a control, so we poured a glass without the benefit of any accessories.  Next we used the Vinturi Wine Aerator, funneling the wine through this device to open its potential.  Then we poured with Clef Du Vin dipped into the glass for four brief seconds.  What a difference!  Then finally we attached The Wine Clip to the bottle for our last glass in the experiment.  With all four glasses ready for tasting, the four of us passed the glasses around.  All of us could immediately identify the glass poured without any wine gadgets and the improvement to the wine was apparent . “It’s like night and day,” commented Sean.  In the end, I concluded: Why wait an hour for wine to decant or years to age when you can instantly improve the flavor and bouquet of wine with one of these gadgets?

 

 

Vinturi Wine Aerator

When compared to the others, the Vinturi stood out with the most positive and unique effect to the wine tasting experience.  The Vinturi opens the wine, making it more flavorful and full of aromas without changing the wine’s personality, using air to open the complex makeup of the wine.

The Vinturi effect on wine has a smooth and soft enhancement to the wine similar to the Clef Du Vin and The Wine Clip.  We would recommend using this wine gadget on all wines young, old and even your favorite wine that tastes great the minute it is poured from the bottle.

 

Clef du Vin

The Clef Du Vin works differently than the Vinturi Wine Aerator.  They both oxidize the wine but the Clef du Vin doesn’t add air to the wine like the Vinturi.  It is composed of a metal alloy that acts like a catalyst; activating then accelerating the oxidation process.  The chemistry of the metal alloy modifies the connections of carbon, sulphur, and hydrogen which modifies the tannin structure, as well as the taste and aroma of wine.  It instantly speeds up the aromatic development of the wine’s flavors and softens the wine’s structure.

Our test group selected the wine glass dipped with the Clef du Vin as the most discernible glass of wine.  The aromas and flavor of the wine were drastically changed for the better.  The change was so obvious that it worried me for using this wine tool on my favorite wines in the future.  And so, Sean and I conducted another test using the Clef on one of our favorite wines–Grey Wolf Cellar’s The Big Bad Wolf.  To our surprise, the results were repeated.

Whereas the Vinturi works well on all wines, the Clef du Vin works best on wines that age well. Don’t be surprised if the effect of the Clef du Vin flattens the taste of your wine. This may occur if you are dipping the Clef into a bottle that is recommended for drinking in a year or two max.  To fully appreciate the Clef du Vin use a good young wine that can appreciate over time.

The Clef du Vin is used frequently by connoisseurs with wine cellars.  Most wineries will tell you the recommended years for laying a bottle down.  However, if you do not have this information use the Clef on one of the bottles from the cases you are planning to store. For each dip into the wine, the wine ages by one year. So if the wine improves within 3-6 dips, then store your wine for 3-6 years.

The Wine Clip

The Wine Clip is also very different in the process of improving the taste of the wine.  This wine tool uses the principles of magnetism to improve wine.  It is believed that the use of The Wine Clip breaks up the tannins in wine resulting in a softer and smoother glass of wine.  The Wine Clip also draws more oxygen to the wine when being poured.  The magnetically susceptible oxygen is then attracted to a magnetic field which produces aeration.

The improved difference when compared to the glass unaffected by the wine accessories was clearly noticeable. However, the aromas and flavor weren’t improved to the intensity of the Clef du Vin but were close.