How a blender can improve wine

London - Want to know how to make a cheap bottle of red wine taste like a vintage tipple this Christmas?

Give it a 30 to 60-second high speed blitz in your blender before you serve it, suggests American cookery writer and food scientist Dr Nathan Myhrvold.

Conventional buffs may advocate pouring wine into a decanter and allowing it to sit for an hour or so to help soften its flavours, but Dr Myhrvold says hyperdecanting (a posh name for blitzing bargain plonk in a blender) will improve the bouquet of your wine just as well, and in a fraction of the time.

Does it work? In a simple taste test at home - comparing a glass of freshly opened wine with a glass of the same wine blitzed for 45 seconds at top speed in the blender (you have to wait a couple of minutes for the bubbles to subside before you can serve it) and a glass that had been decanted for an hour - the consensus of opinion was that the decanted wine tasted the best, with slightly more depth of flavour, followed very closely by the hyperdecanted version.

The conclusion? It’s definitely a technique worth trying if you need to serve a cheap bottle of red in a hurry - but perhaps it’s a little too rough and ready for the more expensive bottles.

And one final tip: if you do decide to give hyperdecanting a go, just be sure the blender lid is secured nice and tightly!

Daily Mail