Start Frothing Your Wine For A Truly Peak Drinking Experience
Milk frothers are a handy kitchen gadget with a myriad of creative uses, from blending hot chocolate and homemade whipped cream to mixing scrambled eggs and pancake batter. Perhaps one of the most ingenious applications for a milk frother is using it to aerate your wine. Yes, it may seem peculiar to froth your wine, but if the result is better-tasting wine, why wouldn't you?
If frothy wine sounds unsavory, don't fret. You're not actually drinking the wine while it's frothy, but using the frother to aerate it and then waiting for the foam to dissipate before you take a sip. We often hear that red wine needs to "breathe" and that is what an aerator does: it exposes the wine to air which in turn improves the flavor. While you can simply open the bottle or pour the wine into a decanter to let it breathe, this can take up to two hours for red wine, depending on the type.
An aerator, on the other hand, takes just a minute or two to allow you to enjoy your red wine at its fullest potential. Wine aerators you can buy are essentially a funnel that exposes your wine to oxygen as you pour it. But if you don't own one or want to try something new, a milk frother is another effective tool for aeration. Simply hold it toward the bottom of your glass of red wine for a few seconds, let it sit for a minute or two until the bubbles pop, and enjoy.
Why does wine need oxygen?
It's generally agreed that aeration or exposing wine to oxygen improves the taste of red wine, creating a smoother taste and enhancing its aroma. According to Cassandra Rosen, wine educator for Tussock Jumper Wines (per Real Simple), "As a general rule, if you're not able to smell the aromas of the wine, or it seems too tannic and intense, you can soften the wine and open it up by aerating it." Tannins, phenolic compounds that exist in grape skins, stems, and seeds, are what make your red wine taste dry and astringent. Tannins give structure and longevity to wine but when they are too high or aggressive, they can result in an unpleasant taste and odor.
Oxygen plays an important part in softening tannins and allowing the fruity/floral notes and aromas to shine. Without oxygen, the astringent taste of the tannins can overpower the flavors that add depth to the wine. Reductive winemaking (making wine without oxygen) can lead to a wine with a rotten egg or sewage-like odor. These wines tend to have a slow aging process, allowing the reductive odors to disappear over time. Wines made with oxidative winemaking, on the other hand, are generally ready to drink earlier since the tannins have been exposed to oxygen during the vinification.
Other easy ways to aerate your wine
While using a milk frother is an easy way to aerate your red wine and soften those tannins, it's likely you won't be bringing one to a winery. If you want to look like you know what you're doing at a wine tasting, swirl your glass of red wine for a minute and then smell it. Sure, it can look pretentious if you get overzealous with it, but swirling the wine actually does have a purpose: it's a simple way to aerate your wine before drinking it. Swirling the wine should release some of the aromas listed on the bottle, hence the sniffing part. Another aeration method is to pour your wine back and forth between two glasses a few times.
If you are drinking at home and sharing a bottle, instead of aerating your individual glass, you can pour the wine into a blender and blend for about a minute. The wine will get foamy similar to when using a milk frother but the bubbles will eventually dissipate. Or, if you don't want to haul out the blender, simply shake the bottle of wine (after pouring out some of it into a glass to make more room in the bottle). Which of these methods works the best? Every wine drinker will have their own opinion, so you'll just have to try them out and see which you prefer.