Serving a wine should be easy enough (right?): Just open and pour. However, anyone who has ever struggled with a crumbling cork, or listened to a debate over whether the Cabernet they’re drinking needs to “breathe” more, knows that sometimes it’s not quite so simple.
Decanting has one of those question marks. The decanting procedure remains mysterious and intimidating to many drinkers: Which wines need it? When to do it? And how?
The answer is quite simple- The action of pouring a wine from a bottle into a decanter does most of the decanting (breathing) work, instantly!
Fundamentally, decanting serves two purposes: to separate a wine from any sediment that may have formed and to aerate a wine in the hope that its aromas and flavour structure will be more vibrant and complex upon serving.
Cheap, rough/harsh and heavy old (often expensive) wines benefit most from aeration. A particularly old wine (especially one 10 or more years old) should only be decanted 30 minutes or less before drinking, where a younger- more vigorous, full-bodied red wine can be decanted for an hour before serving. Too long and the wine will lose all flavour and might even become oxidised.
You forgot to decant your wine before the guest arrived? Or you are simply just too excited to start drinking? Here’s how to speed up the “resting and breathing” timeframe.
1. Pour the wine once or twice between two decanters or between decanter and the wine bottle (there’s a gadget for that)
2. Swirl the wine (slowly) in the decanter to increase the air/wine ratio.
3. Get a wine aerator (fast and straight into your glass).
4. Buy a bottle of white wine or champagne to drink while you wait. Time will fly!
Decanting has one of those question marks. The decanting procedure remains mysterious and intimidating to many drinkers: Which wines need it? When to do it? And how?
The answer is quite simple- The action of pouring a wine from a bottle into a decanter does most of the decanting (breathing) work, instantly!
Fundamentally, decanting serves two purposes: to separate a wine from any sediment that may have formed and to aerate a wine in the hope that its aromas and flavour structure will be more vibrant and complex upon serving.
Cheap, rough/harsh and heavy old (often expensive) wines benefit most from aeration. A particularly old wine (especially one 10 or more years old) should only be decanted 30 minutes or less before drinking, where a younger- more vigorous, full-bodied red wine can be decanted for an hour before serving. Too long and the wine will lose all flavour and might even become oxidised.
You forgot to decant your wine before the guest arrived? Or you are simply just too excited to start drinking? Here’s how to speed up the “resting and breathing” timeframe.
1. Pour the wine once or twice between two decanters or between decanter and the wine bottle (there’s a gadget for that)
2. Swirl the wine (slowly) in the decanter to increase the air/wine ratio.
3. Get a wine aerator (fast and straight into your glass).
4. Buy a bottle of white wine or champagne to drink while you wait. Time will fly!
Curious how to breathe some life in your wine?
Decanters are no longer the silly looking glass vases your grandma had displayed on a silver tray. Today decanters can be anything from magnificent pieces of (practical) art to entertainment centrepieces or simply a handheld or bottle-attached gadget called an aerator.
The Classy and the Classic
Fun and Entertaining
Aerators
The Extras
But why stop here? There are still plenty of cool (and useful) gadgets to add to your collection, so keep those visits regular!