Un petit experiment

Disclaimer: if you are really into wine and feel very strongly that people MUST know what they're talking about when they talk about wine, this post is not for you. Unless, you are drunk on wine at this very moment, and then you will either be cursing at the screen, or laughing. Let's hope its the latter. Meet my Vintura. I call him Vinny.

I met his twin brother at a party and thought he was the coolest thing evah! You are supposed to pour red wine in the top, through the filter (see close-up), and it is supposed to make your wine taste better. In particular, it is supposed to make inexpensive wine taste like expensive wine. That's nice, if it's true, but it's not the reason I wanted him, The real reason was for the cool gurgly noises it makes when you pour wine through it. Combined with the slick appearance, it's a real conversation piece.

 The deal is though, they are pricey. So while I was an admirer, I didn't exactly run right out and buy one. You can imagine how excited I was when a good friend got me one of my very own for Christmas. "Oooooh!" I squealed, then jumped up and down hugging the box.

 I have used mine quite a bit since Christmas, and am still enamoured. I've even run some test experiments on friends to see if they could tell a difference, and have gotten responses ranging from "I'm not sure. I think so. I mean, they SMELL different" to "Yep. I can definitely tell the difference".

But these were not double blinded tests. I always knew which glass I was handing them. Maybe I smiled more when I gave them the aerated sample. As a clinician, I knew I could improve the study design.

I needed a volunteer test subject. As I was the only one home, I consented. To ensure the study was double blind I selected two identical wine glasses, and put a tiny piece of clear tape on the indent on the bottom of one glass, and I carefully poured that glass half  full with the $9.99 test wine, a petit syrah by Cupcake. Next, I put the other glass under the filter, and slowly poured the same amount of the same wine through the funnel contraption into the second glass until it was half full. Then I rotated the glasses around each other and back the other direction for a couple minutes, like I was playing a game of Pin the tail on the donkey, except no one gets dizzy. And there is no donkey. Or tail. The purpose of the spinning randomizes the choices so I wouldn't know what I was getting.  And I truly didn't know, so I took one of the glasses, and sniffed. Hmm. Didn't really smell like anything- faint fruit maybe. Then I tasted some.

This face says, "I'm not sure what to think of you.






After cleansing my palate, I picked up the other glass and lifted it to my nose. Hmmm. "Smells like blackberry, and something else, maybe a hint of dark chocolate? Though honestly I could've just read that on the bottle. It seems like all dry red wines claim to taste like chocolate.  So I tasted test sample #2.

This face says, "I think we can be friends."

It was now time for the unblinding. The second glass was tapeless. hah! Vinnie, you are worth more than your just good looks and funky noises!