Wine Enthusiast Crystal Vivid Wine Decanter – Hand Blown, Lead-Free, Wide Base Aerating Glass Bottle w/ Minimizing Drip Spout (47oz)

We are no wine snobs. I have heard people say you cant drink wine without a decanter and that is definitely true, most people do drink it without the decanter ;) However much to my surprise a decanter does make it better.I am not afraid to have my own opinion about things and generally I think a lot of is more fluff then functional so I was happy to see that this present for my wife was not all fluff. Ya it looks cool, yes it seems like a solid piece of glass, yes it also makes the wine look more sophisticated but more importantly everyone that did a blind taste test picked out the decanter wine and preferred it over the bottled wine.We poured half a bottle in the decanter, let it sit a few minutes and kept half of the wine in the bottle. Poured two glasses and tried to spot the differences. It was easy, even the smell was different. The decanter (from a non-wino perspective) really does balance the flavors of the wine out. That way you dont get us much sharpness or as many as the overtones that you typically get at the beginning and end of the sip or gulp.Now I am sure that is the case with pretty much any decanter, but this one seems to be constructed well, looks nice and pours fairly easy unless it is almost empty.

I have used this decanter for about 4 months now and find it is a beautiful, useful accessory for enjoying wine. It is not fragile as some reviewers have noted (I have bumped it against the granite countertop several times and it survived unscathed) but it looks classy. I am well pleased with the combination of durability with beauty. The wine is well aerated as it is poured from the bottle into the decanter and is further oxygenated at the large surface exposed to the air.By the way, if you purchase this decanter, forgo the separate aerator, cleaning brush and drying stand that are Amazon-recommended accessories. The aerator is completely duplicative; the cleaning brush and stand are unnecessary. You will merely rinse the decanter with warm water and park it on a shelf until the next use. At that time, pour out the small amount of clear rinse water and you are good to go. I do like the glass sphere "cork" which closes the opening if you leave wine in there for a day or so. BTW, it took me a few tries to figure out how to remove the glass stopper. You can carefully "pour" it out of the opening into your hand without spilling any wine. Enjoy!

I purchased this decanter (here on Amazon) and wanted to modify my review so I cancelled it, thinking that I could start the process over. I could not.So this review IS from a very recent purchase. The bottom is not flat and it rocks a little. They do not grind the bottom flat. Otherwise, I am happy with the purchase and not unhappy enough to return it. It is a large, pretty piece of glass! The mouth/neck is large. More so than I thought from the picture. It is a very "manly" size and weight decanter. One feature is that it is large enough to fit the neck of an average bottle in the spout to drain completely and the bottle shoulder acts as a stopper. A large avacado is also a good fit! The free book - Wine Enthusiast Wine Guide and magazine was a nice bonus!

im no somelier, but i do drink a lot of wine and this seems to satisfy all decanter requirements, including made of glass, has ballar platinum beads that you can order along with it to clean the product, and the upside down stand to have the wash drip away (unless you like the taste of soap in your wine). So if you want the full package and looks decent in front of a gentrified crowd (disclosure: i personally do not belong to the latter), then get this decanter plus stand plus reidel cleaning balls, and you are set for any occasion involving fine wines. and, please, by all means, avoid that darn aerator, i swear i could publish a double blind cross-controlled study on this and get a ridiculously significant p-value for non-aerated/venutri'd scoring significantly lower than your decanted wine.bottom line: stick with the decanter set, it looks sweet, as a copious wine consumer i can tell you it work well, and avoid other aeration devices. trust me, folks in France got it right after their first 1000 years of viticulture.

Amazon says I purchased this December 10, 2010. I have enjoyed it very much, and it really has enhanced some wonderful wines, and some not so wonderful wines!It has served me well, right up until this morning as I was washing it, I should have had my coffee first. I didn't pay close enough attention as I had it upside-down draining water from within. It toppled over into my sink and broke the neck in two pieces! I do have a drying rack, ball stopper, and funnel with strainer (that has been a godsend itself!!), but there was too much water for me to store the decanter yet on the drying rack. My bad. :'(Making my second purchase of this decanter now! I recommend this for the wine enthusiast in you. This is a wonderful set, and I get lots of compliments. It looks, and feels, very elegant. I feel you must buy the ball stopper and funnel with strainer to complete the set.Cheers!

We have the Vinturi wine aerator (Amazon) which works great when opening a bottle of red is a last minute decision. But we wanted something that would present itself well at the dinner table or bar when we had the time to properly decant the wine.The Wine Enthusiast Vivid Decanter is a very attractive work of glass and it holds the typical 750 ml bottle of wine to a level where the maximum surface area is exposed to the air.I can understand other reviewers' comments that it could be difficult to pour, but I just watched what I was doing, and didn't have any problems from the very first pour right up until the last.

I wish I'd bought this the first time. The first decanter I had was a cheap one from a local box store and it worked well enough, till it broke. This one seems much more durable, the neck is actually round (and so works with a glass stopper) and it has yet to stain, even though we've been using it for months. Our last decanter started to stain after a month and needed to be cleaned much more often. So far we've been using this for 4-5 months and have yet to see any stains.

Nice decanter, design is good easy to pour and sturdy on a flat surface. Glass isn't to thick either. Good buy.

J'aime bien le decander que je viens de recevoir mais je ne suis pas contente car l'image laisse pensée que cela viens avec l'aérateur ce qui n'est pas le cas . Il vous faudrais changer la photo ou votre description. Alors si je regarde je me demande si je ne dois pas en commander un autre avec aerateur et vous retourner celui là ou trouver un aerateur comme celui montre sur la photo.C'est un peu comme une fausse publicité.

I don't know how the decanter would work because it was packed in a box with only one piece of paper around it. It was shattered. Why not pack something made of glass in bubble wrap or another shock absorbing material. I'm ticked