The WineWeaver is a new patented wine accessory that allows to aerate your wine directly into your glass, without having to go through a decanter. But you can also use it while pouring into a decanter, to give the wine further aeration.
It looks rather nice and fun pouring a glass of wine through the WineWeaver, as the liquid goes hitting the sides of the vessel in a regular distributed flow. The effect works best on red wine obviously, as it offers more color and contrast. But when the (white) wine is cold, you also get condensation where the wine hits the glass which remains after the pouring. Fun looking corolla shape (not the car one, but the distribution of petals on a flower) !
I have tested the accessory on two very different wines, for fun and check what it actually does:
2014 Brancott Estate Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc: See full review of the wine at Brancott SB. The wine does appear a bit more open more quickly when poured through the WineWeaver. The passion-fruit flavors reveal themselves slightly more, and the asparagus notes are toned down. New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs can be a bit reductive as all winemaking precautions are taken to avoid the oxydation of flavours during the elaboration process. The screwcap sealing accentuates the reductive nature of these wines (notes of asparagus, sometimes garlic, or cabage if you’re unlucky). The aerator seems to bring more oxygen into the wine more quickly for faster enjoyment.
2010 Ravens Wood Old Vines Sonoma County Zinfandel: this wine is naturally packed with flavors of dark-roasted things: coffee, nuts, cocoa, and vanilla. The WineWeaver seems to allow the revealing of the fruit notes of plum a little more quickly. Oaky flavors in wine tend to get oxydised quite quickly in wine. Vanilla flavor that comes from vanilline for example, is converted into a less aromatic compound when oxygen is present. Remember this, if you find a wine too oaky, give it a bit of air and time, and you’ll find the oak to be tempered leaving place to fruit and whatever is behind the barrel ageing influence. The WineWeaver may well slightly accelerate this process.
No wine tested here presented them, but vegetal characters in wine like pyrazines (in un-ripe Cabernet Sauvignon for example) tend to oxydise fairly quickly with oxgen as well. A good trick to know for cool-vintage Bordeaux for example, or Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley. Again, a bit of oxygen and time will reveal more fruit and spices.
Overall, this is a well-presented accessory. The presentation is refined. It comes in a variety of colors to suit most, some very fashionable hues. I tested the ‘Black Velvet’ version. Black being my favorite color and popular in New Zealand thanks to the local rugby team (the All Blacks they’re called if you’re not familiar with the game).
With two different positions for the spout, it can be used on a glass (spout up) or a wine decanter (spout down). Again on a decanter, you’ll get a little more oxygen more quickly into the wine.
For more information, visit the WineWeaver website.
Please let me know your thoughts