Have I been lied to? Has every winemaker, retailer, critic and author been telling me porkies? I ask this because I came across these Port Sippers on t'internet and they are telling me that you sip the port from the bottom of the glass where the port has not had a chance to oxidise yet. They are replicas of 17th century port sippers, and cost £7.00 for two.It was always my understanding that you open a bottle of port, pour it into a decanter to get air into it. The purpose of allowing it to breathe is to enable the wine open up and allow certain aromas to come out of the wine which enhance the drinking experience. Also, just opening the bottle (ignore the sediment factor for this by the way) only exposes a small area of the wine to air so it doesn't allow the wine to open up. These port sippers have a similar surface area of wine, so they will not allow the wine aerate and you won't get to "enhance the aromas and flavours" that they claim
You can get them on Amazon and also read the reviews from people who have bought them and had them broken en route and found that they are pretty flimsy. Having said that, some of the comments are that they are a 'fun'.
Also, whilst I think they are a gimmick, I kinda like them! I'd never buy these but if I came across some antique port sippers, you can bet I'll be buying them!
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