Wine aerators

The pourer goes into the bottle and stays there. Handy when you pour several glasses from the same bottle, and it replaces a drip ring at the same time. The set is for anyone who wants to be able to set the aerator down separately, above a decanter for instance, and includes a stand so it does not drip on the tablecloth.

The drip disc is something else. It does not aerate, but rolls up into the neck and cuts off the stream so no drop runs down the bottle. On a white tablecloth that is the difference between a stain and no stain, which is why many people use the two together. With every version, check that it fits the neck. Standard wine bottles are almost all the same size, but thick Burgundy bottles and some screw-cap bottles differ.

Aerating helps with young, firm red wine and with wines that still smell closed straight from the bottle. Pour slowly, because that gives the wine longer contact with air. With an old wine you do the opposite: it is fragile and loses its scent within a few minutes instead of opening up. Leave white and sparkling wine alone as well.

If you are in doubt, pour one glass with and one without and smell the difference. For wine you are going to mix anyway, such as in a sangria, aerating serves no purpose, because there the fruit and the ice do the work. The glasses in which the difference is clearest are with the red wine glasses.

Wine residue dries into a sticky film that blocks the air holes, and then nothing gets aerated at all. So rinse the aerator through with warm water straight after use, from top to bottom, and let it drain upside down.

The plastic parts can go in the dishwasher on a short programme, but keep them away from the heating element at the bottom. Leave rubber sealing rings out of it and clean them by hand, because hot air makes them hard and then they no longer seal against the neck.

If you would rather take the classic route, the decanters are gathered together, from narrow models to wide ones. For keeping an opened bottle, look at the wine stoppers, and for holding temperature at the wine coolers. The full overview is with the wine accessories. If you are after something to mix rather than pour, the recipes are on the cocktail pages.