A simple, elegant, drip-free wine pouring and aeration device—TRIbella

Aerating? Decanting? English, please!! These wine terms can be hard to understand. So what does it mean when you aerate your wine? Aeration—which means oxygenis in contact with the wine—will bring out the best aroma while losing astringent and tannic characteristics.

Aeration of wines can be done by using a wine aerator or decanters. The TRIbella aerators are among the best aerators one can buy in the market. The TRIbella is a simple, elegant, drip-free wine pouring and aeration device that fits directly into a wine bottle. The TRIbella wine aerator allows the device to attach to the bottle top; then, simply pouring the wine elegantly and gently exits the device in three perfect streams. The ambient air between the separated streams allows the wine to elegantly catch a breath of air as it falls effortlessly into your glass, which successfully aerates your big bold red and delights each guest with every pour.

Following excerpts are taken from the conversation with Skip Lei, the inventor, and owner of TRIbella

Q. Who are you, and how did you initially come up with the idea for the TRIbella?

My name is Skip Lei, and I spent most of my career in product creation in the footwear industry, with over 30 years at Nike.

I’ve always been the type of person to ask, “Well, why does it have to be like that?” or “Why can’t things be better?” and over the years, I’ve come up with several ideas and secured a few different patents, mostly just for the fun and the challenge of the creative process.

I hadn’t spent much time thinking about wine or wine solutions until my daughter attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. While visiting her on numerous occasions, my wife and I also began visiting wineries and tasting rooms in Walla Walla and the beautiful surrounding area. There are over 200 wineries in the Columbia Valley, and they all share a deep passion for the art of winemaking. The idea for the TRIbella began with all of these winery visits.

Q. What is the TRIbella?

The TRIbella™ is a wine aerator that immediately brings out the best the flavors of the wine as you pour into your glass. Its compact design and multi-stream technology allow it to fit directly in the wine bottle, and it makes the pour more beautiful, elegant, and drip-free than pouring directly from the bottle.

Q. What is aeration? Why would someone want an aerator?

Wine experts agree that “opening up” red wine to breathe is often the secret to enhancing the beauty of its taste. People have successfully decanted red wine for centuries. In recent years, many devices have quickened the aeration process to bring out those best flavors without waiting an hour for the traditional decanting process. We believe that this process can also be beautiful while being efficient and effective. Our TRIbella aerator mixes both art and science to achieve this perfect pour—bringing the best of beauty, ease, and function.            

Q. Tell me more about how your winery visits led you to start TRIbella?

I found myself captivated by the entire winemaking process and the pride the winemakers take in their finished product. After listening to these stories, I gained a greater appreciation for the process.

When it finally came time to taste wine in the tasting rooms after the tour, it was always a little sad to see this beautiful and magical red fluid simply poured straight out of a bottle. Some wineries poured through a wine aerator, which seemed unattractive to me, as the aerator distracted me from the beauty of the wine itself. So I thought: “With all of the passion and care that goes into making wine, how come the act of pouring and aerating can’t be beautiful and elegant as well?”

So fast forward several years, and I got the fantastic idea of pouring wine out of a bottle in a very unfussy way that would be elegant and delightful to watch. So after much trial and error, I finally settled on probably the simplest design of all, having just three streams.

The reason I love this particular design is because you can see the negative space between the streams of wine. The ambient air in between the streams allows the wine to gracefully “catch a breath of air” as it falls elegantly and effortlessly into your wine glass.

After successfully launching via Kickstarter back in 2014, we’ve continued to grow the TRIbella brand and product lines, always as a family business and always committed to innovation and creating newer and better solutions to delight wine-lovers worldwide.

Q. How would you elaborate on TRIbella’s “Beauty, Ease, and Function” theory?

When we created TRIbella, we knew products already existed that offered the science of mixing air with wine to “open up the flavors of a red wine.” Many of them do a great job, but the beauty seems missing. TRIbella makes it possible – and essential – to have an aerator that checks all those boxes: beauty, ease, and function.

Beauty: The TRIbella wine aerator pours the wine in three perfectly gorgeous streams, enhancing the visual experience of the pour.

Ease: The TRIbella was designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind. TRIbella’s hassle-free design fits directly into the neck of most standard-sized wine bottles.

Function: Lastly, functionality is essential. TRIbella’s three-stream pour aerates by increasing the surface area of wine in contact with the air on the way into the glass. 

Q. How did you get the idea for developing the storage case for the TRIbella Classic aerator?

TRIbella Classic is easy to use and clean, and we also wanted it to be easy to store and take on the go. The original protective case, which resembles an eye-glass case explicitly fitted for the TRIbella, is easy to toss in your kitchen drawer and equally easy to pack in your purse or backpack to bring along to your next dinner party. The case offers solid and stylish protection to keep your TRIbella safe while not in use.

We later developed the TRIbellaPOURtable, which is functionally identical to the classic is even more compact for when you’re tight on space but still want to bring along your TRIbella.

Q. Where can people find the TRIbella wine aerator?

Our website https://www.tribellawine.com/links to several online options for purchasing our products. We can also be found in locations around the country and the world, but most likely found in-store and online at Williams-Sonoma, on Amazon, and in many friendly wineries in Oregon, Washington, and California.

The man behind TRIbella’s elegant, simple, and effective design

Skip Lei is the inventor and owner of TRIbella LLC. Skip worked for over 30 years with Nike in product creation. He is also the Chief Product Officer at Kizik, producer of easy to wear shoes. He focuses his total energy to deliver revenue and profitability through unique and innovative product solutions, always with the ultimate goal of delighting consumers.

Skip holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration from Arizona State University.

“Aeration made beautiful.”