Worthless gadget or innovation? I’d love for my poor planning to be less of a factor in my enjoyment of wine.
https://www.brevilleusa.com/products/the-sommelier?variant=1047459102748
You can throw your wine in a blender and save some money.
Yes, really (though I wouldn’t do so with older wines).
I love the concept, but does it work?
If so, I have been a (relatively) good boy this year, so maybe I will hope for Santa to bring me one of these…
looks like an awesome tube amp.
No that’s the deluxe model has the amp and bonus box of vinyl. 
You want to mix your wine with impure air?!!
P Hickner
I love my tea making machine by Breville…but this is way too far for me. No way it treats the wines I want right…
There is a similar device called iSommelier, from a company called iFAVINE that has a somewhat different base but has a very similar write-up about removing pollutants and concentrating the oxygen to 90%. From a little Googling, it appears that iFAVINE is a company that was started by Top Electric, an entity in China that makes products for Breville and other companies. I’d imagine the iFAVINE and Breville units are the same technology wrapped in different trade dress.
I think the iSommelier was released a couple of years ago, initially at $1000. You can now buy a unit from Wine Enthusiast for $500. Williams Sonoma sells the Breville version for $500, but claims suggested retail is $750.
When the iSommelier was released in 2015, it appears units were sent to various folks for reviews. Like a lot of these accelerated aeration type devices, those reviews tend to claim the iSommelier appears to make a difference with some wines more than others, but that sometimes the consensus favorite is a wine that was treated, sometimes the control.
-Al
This was the best article I got on said gadget…
Tim Gaiser MS puts it to the test.
http://www.timgaiser.com/blog/rarified-air
I personally really enjoy this basic decanter. it was $40 at the Big Basin tasting room under another name.
The Tim Gaiser comments enclose in a nutshell the reason why I prefer to pop and pour young wines rather than decant. I have to put that in the context of not opening younger bottles of wine unless there is plenty of time to let them evolve in the glass, and not expecting young wines to resemble properly aged wines no matter what treatment given.
P Hickner
The iFAVINE logo appears on the Breville devices in their videos
This seems perfect for oeno-pretentious restaurants. Domestically, I like the whole process of planning wines, decanting, seeing how they change. Changing tack if things don’t evolve as expected. ( and if it’s important to have no surprises that’s factored into the selection).
With this gadget, you’d also need a Tardis if you guess too high on the required degree of aeration.
I noticed from the videos that the aeration seems (to me) to be quite energetic. Does that damage the wine in any way?
I assume this is really meant for three year old Aussie Shirazes? *cough.
Perhaps the next step is for the winery to do the aeration prior to bottling. They could sell “pre-aged” wine. Then it really is pop and pour. (Sort of like Rioja Gran Riserva although in the latter case there’s usually a quality bump as well).
I swear at first I read this as “You can throw your money in a blender and save some time”
That also works.
Hyperdecanting is discussed in Nathan Myhrvold’s book “Modernist Cuisine”.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-09-22/how-to-decant-wine-with-a-blender
i got one as a gift, but have not tried it… how does it handle sediments from say an older barolo?
Wow. It’ll let me “micro-oxygenate” just like a real Michel Rolland client!
It will mix sediments from an old Barolo quite thoroughly.
-Al
That’s not what they were using in the video!
…
As I said above I think this is aimed at a certain market which has a rather small intersection with Berserkers.
Yes, was referring to the decanter in the Amazon link.
-Al
And I was referring to the wine used. Brilliant broken telegraph. Sorry!
I still like the idea of just selling pre-aged wine…