We’ve covered wine aerators in the past and are generally bullish on their utility. The problem, of course, is bulk. Where do you keep this thing? And what do you do about all the wine dripping off of it when it’s not hovering over a glass.

Enter Soiree: A wine aerator that attaches to the top of a wine bottle and aerates as you pour.

Great idea, but the execution doesn’t quite work. The main problem is that, to get your aeration going, you have to turn the bottle of wine virtually upside down. This takes a massive leap of faith that the Soiree is not going to fall out of the bottle’s neck… and even more confidence that you can successfully turn a full bottle of wine over 180 degrees and manage to get that wine to land on target in the glass. This is tough. Turning the bottle back over when you’re done, without spilling, is even tougher.

If you don’t turn the bottle upside down, the Soiree doesn’t really aerate the wine. Rather than rushing down the sides of the globe, it just kind of dribbles along the bottom-most part of the pourer. This doesn’t look nearly as cool as when it’s done properly, and it just doesn’t do much to the wine. Tasting blind, I couldn’t tell the difference between wine poured straight from the bottle and that poured through a non-inverted Soiree. Results were better with the fully inverted bottle, but I never felt comfortable making that kind of maneuver.

C / $20 and up / [BUY IT FROM AMAZON]

Soiree Bottle-top Wine Decanter & Aerator

$20

5

Rating

5.0/10

BUY IT NOW