Decanter vs. Aerator

I bought a wine “aerator” on Amazon for about $10-$15 some time ago. It’s a 3 piece rubber and plastic spout that you pop directly into the bottle and pour your wine through. I think it works pretty well but I’m a novice and don’t know any better. Now I’m trying to learn:

  1. For young reds without sediment, is there an actual technical advantage to a glass decanter over a spout aerator? What about aged red wines that might have sediment? I guess seeing the sediment before it goes into your glass is a good thing.

  2. Once you’ve poured your bottle into a decanter, you’re committed to drinking the entire bottle, right? You can’t funnel the wine back into the bottle and save it for the next night, can you?

Apologies if this has been covered but I didn’t find anything on point when I searched this board for decanter threads. Yes, this is what you get on Wine 101! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

I often pour inexpensive young wines through the aerator into the decanter.

Sure you can funnel it back into the bottle for the next night but that assumes it’s going to be good then. If it wasn’t that good the first night it’s unlikely to be better the second.

Thank you. Your answer implies there is some added value to decanting over just aerating so I’ll give it a try. Since I’m the only red wine drinker in my household and I try to limit myself to half a bottle on “school nights”, I guess I’ll invest in a funnel, too, or just decant half the bottle at a time.

I always decant. I do have aerators but never use them.

I never use an aerator. I prefer to stray away from any silly wine gadgets.

If a wine needs decanting due to deposit, I double-decant it - aka. decant it carefully to any vessel larger than 75 cl to get it off the gunk, then funnel it back to the bottle. Also, if I’m arranging tastings, I tend to double-decant all the wines - except for the bubblies.

Only if I know the wine is going to be closed, reductive or benefiting from air, I’m going to decant it into an actual decanter. Otherwise I just open the bottle early enough and consume it either in the course of the evening or two-three days.

I usually use a Menu Winebreather Carafe–which does both.

I use an aerator/pourer with all my still wines. It seems to help them open up a little bit and makes pouring easier. Also gets rid of some sediment, if there is any.

Every wino I hang with has one or more aerators and none of them used them after the first “new and exciting toy” phase.

Decanters, aye! [cheers.gif]

Aerators are a waste. Just swirl your glass.

Easy for you to say, which kind? [cheers.gif] [cheers.gif]