Give your wine a bit of an air; Liquid News.

Byline: Fiona Ennys

I''VE never quite understood the reason for storage jars (yes, OK, just bear with me).

I mean, why buy something in a perfectly good packet and then decant it into something else? Sugar, pasta, flour ... I''m sorry, but it doesn''t matter how pretty the jars matching or not - at the end of the day it all seems a pretty pointless exercise.

Of course, there is one exception. And, yes, as you may have guessed, it''s wine.

The flavours of a younger wine can open up and be enhanced by the contact with the air as you pour it from the bottle into the decanter. Then there are the older wines which may have accumulated deposits that you don''t want inS the glass.

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Careful decanting will give you a good-looking and clean-tasting wine with none of those slightly sandy bits that can seS t your teeth on edge.

And yes, I will concede that it does look pretty, particularly if you use a thin, clear decanter and not one of those chunky and expensive cut-class jobbies usually lovingly displayed on a living rS oom sideboard.

Look out for a decanter wS ith a wide bottom and a tapered neck and don''t bother with a stopper - after all, your wine is going to be drunk pretty quickly as it won''t benefit from too much hanging around.

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I recently tried decanting a lovely Do[+ or -]a Dominga old vines cabernet sauvignon/carmenere blend 2008 from Chile''s Vi[+ or -]a Casa Silva (Oddbins, pounds 5.99, abv 13.5%). After an hour or so of being opened up to the air, its fresh and fruity berry flavours came bursting into the glass and made for some very rich and smooth drinking; perfect for those summer days when the rain comes hammering down and you need to make your own little bit of sunshine.

. WHAT I''ve been drinking this week: OK, it may have suffered from overexposure, but I still love Pinot Grigio - particularly the lovely Storie di Vite 2008 from Italy''s Cantina La Vis (Waitrose, pounds 6.99, abv 12.5%).

This rather posh PG has an aroma that reminds you of sweet and lusciously ripe pears, yet it''s actually a dry wine. Nice balance, nice body - now isn''t that what we all want? Don''t forget: Drink responsibly.

Fiona Ennys