Twister Wine Aerator at Williams-Sonoma, Gift Suggestion #6

Experts vary on the need to aerate wine before drinking it. Many are happy to simply decant the wine into a flask (often a very expensive and easily breakable flask, we might add), and then let it sit for a half hour or so, in order to let certain unidentified volatile elements escape as gases.

Still others prefer to pour it into glasses in order to aerate, reasoning that the surface area of the fluid exposed directly to air is greater, facilitating the process. Then there are those who prefer some sort of enhanced gadget, some of which might remind you of magic tricks. Like this gadget.

The Twister Wine Aerator bears scant resemblance to the party game Twister. It allows the wine to swirl as it leaves the bottle and flows down into the glass, or flask, depending on how you use it. There's a metal stand, which looks very high-tech and permits direct pouring into a glass, or you can simply put the thing on top of the flask provided in the set. As an added bonus, there's a screen in the contraption, which will filter out the larger pieces of sediment. But only a small proportion of red wines fling off such sediment anyway.

So, if you know someone who has plenty of storage space in their kitchen, and is a wine fanatic, this isn't a bad gift to get, especially if you buy it online, where it's currently marked down from $79.95 to $39.95 on the Williams-Sonoma website.

Williams-Sonoma
121 East 59th Street
917-369-1131

Check out our other Foodie Xmas Gift Suggestions.