Bubbling Wines

Lately, this Rampant Oenophile has been hearing lots about “bubbling wine,” which has become all the rage among both bartenders and casual pourers. Vinturi, the company responsible for all this bubbling madness, launched a product last year intended to stimulate aeration in single glasses of red wine, as opposed to decanting an entire bottle to let a still wine breathe. On its own merits, bubbling wine makes a lot of sense. Most people serve red wine too cool, white wine too warm, and rarely let the wine breathe substantially to open the flavors. Faced with “flat” wine that has not yet opened, I typically would swirl the wine in my glass, or hold the bowl in my palm for a red wine to open the flavors and bouquet.

But, if there’s an accessory that could do that work for me and look cool in the process, well that’s something I want to try. A friend of this Rampant Oenophile gave me a Vinturi for red wine as a gift this holiday season. I’ve been coveting her Vinturi for so long that I’m sure she felt that giving me one of my own was the best insurance against losing hers after a party…

The concept is simple. Based on Bernoulli’s principle, the Vinturi causes the flow of wine to accelerate, thus lowering the pressure within the wine and inviting bubbles of air to mix with the wine for proper aeration. An aerated wine is an open wine, which unlocks extra bouquet on the nose and flavor profiles on the palate. A “bubbled” wine offers more aromatic profiles, a “bigger” nose, and more complete profile for you to smell. The wine should have more complex flavors on the palate, giving you a better chance to notice the nuanced tastes so often written about in wine blogs and reviews. Finally, a fully opened wine finishes more smoothly with less of an after-taste or concentration of flavors that might bog down a flat wine.

That’s the theory, anyway. As ashamed as I am to admit this, I completely blew it with the Vinturi. To borrow a medical expression, apparently I am contra indicated, meaning that I got it all backwards.

To try out my new toy, I did a blind tasting with two respectable burgundy style wines; one glass of each as poured from the bottle, another glass poured through the bubbler. In both cases, this Rampant Oenophile enjoyed better and falsely identified the un-bubbled wine. I waxed poetic about the enhanced bouquet, better finish, and bigger flavors of one glass versus the flatter profile of another, only to learn that the wines on which I heaped so much favor were actually poured directly from the bottle, and the bubbled wines, to me at least, tasted much less enhanced.

Oh, well. I’m still going to test my bubbler and see if I can tell the difference. I’ll give it a whirl on some older reds, which need more aeration anyway, and usually deserve decanting.

Happy Holidays!

Stag's Leap Special Find

It’s not often that this Rampant Oenophile gets the opportunity to enjoy a Stag’s Leap wine, let alone a special bottle like the 2006 Artemis Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, but dinner with dear friends surprised with two generous pours from this jewel.  This deep, dark, lusty red wine shines with great clarity in the glass, offers a full rosy bouquet with hints of a creamy caramel and black cherry.  On the tongue, it’s absolutely soft, velvety, and full without any of the mineral tones that might dry a wine.  Absolutely a top wine enjoyed with a range of winter flavors.  It paired perfectly with a medium Filet Mignon, butternut squash and a cilantro and parsley salad.  The wine stood up to the herbs of the salad, and perfectly complimented the creamy texture of the squash without backing down on its fruit and spice balance.  One of the best Cabernet’s of the year, and an essential find for a rack of fine Napa Valley wines.  A very special wine.