A lot of people see me with my black oblong pouch and wonder what on earth I have planned for the evening. The naughty looking velvet number is actually the case to my aerator, given to me by #kwl (Ketton wine league) great Ben Stevenson.

Sometimes I get the aerator out for comical effect, sometimes it’s a desperate attempt to improve a crappy wine, either way the noise makes me happy. I have read a bit more into this and it turns out (if I am correct) aeration is basically speeding up the process of letting a good red wine breathe. Therefore, if the wine is already shit, letting it breathe won’t make it any better.

However, a good wine is likely to need a good amount of time to let the ‘bad tasting’ vapours burn off before you are welcome to try the deeper flavours within. Like all good things, they come to you if you wait.

This evening, mainly for photographic purposes and a lack of knowing what I fancied drinking, my friend Lydia and I aerated a Monte Oton Garnacha, Campo de Borja. We did a blind tasting and it’s safe to say it was a lot nicer before being funnelled, you live and you learn.

Monte Oton

Garnacha, Campo de Borja

Spain, 14.5%

This is a fruity, smooth wine that is perfect for a Monday evening while lazily watching Pulp Fiction and nibbling on Olives. It lacks in depth, but you don’t really want anything complicated at the beginning of the week, a perfect ‘Will Lyons’ Monday wine.