Vin-Aire: Does it Work?

Anyone in the trade will be all too familiar with the ins and outs with this Vin-Aire malark. Only thing is, does the thing work? And more importantly for all of us normal non-trade folk, what is it and what does it do. Well, after a quick chat with Andrew Nolan from Vin-aire Ireland and a "special package" in the mail we got down to tackling these all important questions.




We decided we'd run three wines through a run of three tests. Some would come straight from the bottle, some would get the Vin-Aire treatment and then, last but not least we'd take Vin Aire on with the decanters.

Who were our candidates? We decided on a blend of madness, one we knew we wouldn't like, another we hold in only the greatest of esteem and finally, yet by no means least, a tannic beast to really give Vin-Aire a run for it's money.

Waterford, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008 (The guaranteed failure)

Non Decanted/Vin-Aire: 
Rubber notes extremely prevalent on the nose (Which is one of our major problems with this wine). Blackcurrant with very faint notes of earth present, however, with Cabernet, even at the five to ten quid  point these things are managed, a very disappointing wine which really fails to live up to any of the new rumours around South Africa's Quality jump which are circulating at the minute.


Vin-Aire: 
The shock tactics of Vin-Aire really add some much needed life to the wine, the nose explodes into something vaguely familiar of a €20+ wine. Blackcurrant finally asserts itself, the earthy qualities finding themselves expressed through a dark coco and some leafiness which finally evolving in the form of tobacco and sage. By far the most successful way to drink the wine. Vin-Aire, seems to soften the tannic structure than hides away the pleasant nose of the wine and minimising the effects of the awful rubber notes that protrude through the wine.


Decanted:
Surprisingly the decanting of the wine, which lasted  for well into 3 hours proved no use. Initially the wine opened offering the same fruits on the nose as the Vin-Aire test trail but despite taking an extended amount of time, the wine fell flat on it's face as the burnt rubber nose reappeared, not only on the nose but as a back lash on the palate almost mockingly.

Comment:
Awful wine, that showed so much wasted potential, which is a pity, but we aren't here to talk about the wine. The Vin-Aire preformed specifically well here, offering a by-pass to sitting waiting for the decanter to weave it's magic, or in this case unsuccessfully weave. Here, the Vin-Aire stands toe to toe with the decanter and offers and excellent experience if nothing else! Worth giving a try especially if our harsh words don't preserve you from the wine.


Dead Arm, 2002 Shiraz (The Old Favourite)

Non Decanted/Vin-Aire:
Amazing wine, intense fruit on the nose, palate was a little sleepy but after 10 years in the bottle you'd expect something of a wine feeling a little jet-lag.


Vin-Aire:
What could the Vin-Aire possibly do here? Well apparently it can wake the wine up quick. A run through the Vin-Aire and the palate jumped with excitement, intense blackberry notes with slight hints of herbaceous plants and some spice were all revealed. The Vin-Aire treatment was clearly working wonders here.

Decanted:
With almost what will be a mantra for this article, with time the wine did begin to open up on it's own. The Decanting was seemingly less aggressive to the wine. Achieving different results, in a sense, with much more of the wines elegance retained, with the wine feeling less abused. The one thing worth noting is that the guys at Vin-Aire are quite modestly portraying this as fantastic and ideal for young wines, in our experience, a glass run through the Vin-Aire at the kick off of the night is no harm done at all, and chucking the rest in the decanter to mellow normally.

Comment:
This was the tightest of the three wines to decide which method worked best, a draw between Vin-Aire and the Decanter seemed the fairest of things to do, with both offering good results maybe the decanter tipping ahead slightly for retaining the elegance of the wine.

The Chocalan, Special Blend 2007 (The Monster)

Non Decanted/Vin-Aire:

Closed fruit, refusing to offer up anything straight from the bottle, as we had suspected. Tannic structure everywhere  on the wine, a real monster altogether.


Vin-Aire:
Almost daring the Vin-Aire not to work we tested this. And we were very pleasantly surprised to see positive results roll in. Tannin reduced and fruit opening. Now while we agreed that the wine needed more bottle time regardless of Vin-Aire, there was good improvement from Vin-Aire here.

Decanted:
Again, given a long period in the decanter, the wine did begin to open up. The only difference was that the decanter did offer something of a slightly more elegant effect again overall on the final product.


Comment:
Put to the test the Vin-Aire stands up confidently against conventional decanters. It offers up the positive of cancelling out the 4-5 hour wait people may not have the time for.

Final Word On Vin-Aire:

Is it worth having? Well, the answer is up to you really, our opinion is we'd think so, it works wonders on breathing life into wines. It also did damage control the Waterford Cabernet. I can see the noise being made with the Vin-Aire being a big put off to older crowds, yet with many it is brushed off without as much as a serious joke. A very smart and intelligent product. Empty gives it the thumbs up - expect to see a few more reviews using the Vin-Aire from our end.

Cost: €30.00 (The Corkscrew Wine Merchants)
Value: 4