Winter's Hill Wine

We were recently offered a free toy in the mail, the Waerator an instant wine aerator, to play with in the tasting room. So play with it we did! We opened several new bottles of wine, 2014 Pinot Noir, 2012 Pinot Noir Block 4, and 2012 Pinot Noir Reserve to try it out. For each of these wines we tried one poured out of the bottle and one using the Waerator. On all three bottles the wine being poured with the Waerator was livelier on the nose without having to swirl the glass. The tannins were also slightly softer. So this did enhance the first glass of wine. So it does work. The wine is more opened on both the nose and the palate.

Left glass poured out of bottle. Right glass poured with Waerator. The one on the right definitely has more bubbles from getting more air to the wine.

The major drawback for me with the Waerator is the size and look. It is big and a bit awkward. At home I would not want to put this on a bottle of wine when I have friends over for a nice meal. I would still use a glass decanter because it looks better. If I am just having a glass or two of wine by myself then I would certainly use the Waerator. In the tasting room for the few days we used it it did bring up a lot of conversation about what it was and why we were using it. Most guest said they could smell and taste the difference in the wine, but they all said they same thing about the look. Not that good looking.

The Waerator is battery operated with a push button on top. It is very responsive, ie once you take your finger off the button the wine stopped pouring pretty immediately. I also did not experience any drips coming out afterwards to land on the bar or table. The less mess the better. Cleaning it was simple as well. I left the straw attached and flipped it upside down and stuck the end of the straw under running warm water to flush out, then I pulled the straw off and left it all out to dry.

If you are interested in the Waeator you can check out their website here