Professional Wine Expert

Best Wine Decanters

If you’ve joined the big leagues of wine collecting and consumption, then you already have a wine refrigerator, a few decanters, plenty of stylish openers, and hopefully, some really fine bottles of wine. Probably you’ve got a decent storage and stopper system and you spend a little time thinking about these wines and when and where to pour them.

But you don’t have everything yet. The fact is, a good bottle of wine, particularly older bottles, require special care. For instance if you have in your collection a few bold red wines, like a 1970s-era Cabernet from Napa and a few Bordeaux from 1960s France, chances are that they’ll need decanting before you serve them. Pouring a bottle of wine into a decanter can be an art form at times and loss of wine at these prices is not an option.

Enter the wine funnel. This seemingly humble device is actually pretty useful for decanting your good bottles of wine. The purpose of the funnel is to provide a more foolproof way of getting your wine from its bottle into a decanter. Most good funnels come with a surface filter to trap sediment that will invariably be in older bottles. They also provide specific spout designs to allow the wine to slowly and carefully move into the decanter by not simply splashing into the opening. Believe it or not, with these wines, there is an effect called “bruising” which can occur in older, more delicate wines. “Bruising” occurs when the wine is simply splashed into the decanter and gets a great big dose of oxygen all at once. This can change the wine’s fundamental characteristics and usually not for the better.

Funnels, then, are useful and simple tools - but don’t be fooled. They come in an assortment of shapes and sizes. What you need will depend upon the quality of the wines you’re pouring. What follows is a list of the best funnels. They don’t cost a fortune, but they can save the one you invested in your wine.

The best wine funnels allow the wine to slowly pour into the decanter. Choose from silver wine funnel choices and other wine decanter funnel selections that do the best job with your delicate wines.

Best Wine Decanters by Mark Storer

The Best You Can Get

The WineFall Aerator

Mark says: Let’s face it, wine is art and it can even be its own show. The WineFall combines the necessary aeration of delicate and quality wines with see-through hand-blown glass that allows the consumer to see the wine fall through its many levels as it literally is taken apart and then reassembled back in the carafe or even your glass. It’s a veritable show for your guests as you both make their wine taste better and look better.
Riedel Ultra Wine Decanter and Aerating Funnel Set

Mark says: Riedel is a name any wine lover knows well. Noted for their crystal and heavy glass stemware, Riedel owns the niche of wine paraphernalia and with reason. The Ultra contains both a lead crystal decanter and a pewter wine funnel. The funnel is designed not only to aerate the wine completely, allowing it to run down tiny pinholes in the decanter, it allows you to see the wine as it runs in tiny rivulets from the top of the filter in the funnel to the bottom of the crystal. It is form and function in one spectacular package.
Peugeot Victorien Wine Decanting Funnel

Mark says: The Peugeot line are, as you might guess, very French. The Victorien, or Victorian as we English speakers refer to it, is a special funnel. Not only does it have two surface filters to trap various sediments at different pouring levels, but it’s spout only allows a small amount of wine at a time to run down the side of the decanter. This simple design is what ultimately provides your wine a chance to breathe, but not too much.
Funnel from Signature Royale with Stand

Mark says: This is just pretty cool. The Royale is designed with a Yin and Yang symbol as a motif and its shape is reminiscent of the Yin and Yang symbol itself. It’s a large device and has the necessary filter and aerating pour design of all wine funnels. The stand, however, gives this functional device a good deal of form and makes it a centerpiece of the table next to a beautiful carafe and a fine bottle of wine.
Peugeot Ellipse Wine Decanting Funnel

Mark says: Peugeot’s second entry into the top tier couldn’t be avoided. The Ellipse is a bit different from the Victorien in both design and function. It only has one filter, rather than two and the tube down which the wine travels is shorter. Does this matter? That depends. How far down the decanter does the wine have to travel? If you have a shallow decanter, the Ellipse is probably the right choice for you. Its filter works quite well and it allows slow pouring just like its big brother.

You will be happy with any of these

Signature Royale's Wine Decanting Funnel with Stand

Mark says: Like its big brother above, this funnel becomes a centerpiece as well as a wine-pouring tool. It’s not as elegant as the Yin and Yang stand, but it’s still pretty. Like the Peugeot’s, its design forces the wine through a small opening and allows it to run slowly down the side of the carafe.
Wine Enthusiast French Pewter Aerating Wine Funnel

Mark says: What I like about the Wine Enthusiast line is that it combines the same elements as the top tier funnels, but its elegance is in its simplicity. The French Pewter funnel is a beautiful piece of equipment with spiral spout and simple shape. The spout is a little shorter, but it too has the side release small hole to allow only small amounts of wine at a time into the carafe.
The Wine Enthusiast Glass Decanter and Funnel Set

Mark says: Think of this as a frugal man’s Ultra set from above. It doesn’t have the panache that Riedel put into the Ultra, but it is a fairly sleek looking set with the requisite filter, decanter, and funnel all built to see to it that wine goes slowly to the glass without too much oxygen. It’s actually the value of this entire product line and worthy of its name.
Royal Selangor Fluted Wine Funnel

Mark says: The Fluted funnel is a really pretty item and with its five tiny aeration holes, it allows for maximum aeration as well as the added benefit of being really cool to watch. The wine filters through the sediment flat-filter at the top and then floats out the five small holes, creating tiny rivers of wine that slowly fill the decanter.
Nuance Wine Finer

Mark says: Maybe it’s not fair to put this in the wine funnel category, but the fact is it does serve the function of a wine funnel. The added benefit, though, is that it also severs as a non-drop pourer and a stopper. Made of rubber, the Nuance is designed to fit directly into a bottle of wine. The wine moves into the fluted holes through its filtering system and the holes are small enough that the wine aerates as it goes through. You can essentially aerate a whole bottle of wine by pouring it directly into glasses through the Nuance. When you’re done, no need to remove anything - the Nuance is its own stopper. Now that’s form with function.