Wine Tip – Decanting, what is it?
Have you ever “decanted” a wine before? What is it, you ask? “Decanting” just means to pour a wine from its bottle into another glass container.
Decanting wine does a few things:
First, transferring wine from its bottle into another glass container, like a carafe, separates the wine from any “sediment” (the gunk or crystallized deposits that sits at the bottom of some red and white wines). Separating the wine and the gunk will prevent you from getting a mouthful of wine crud.
Second, transferring it to another glass container aerates the wine, or in other terms, it allows the wine to “breathe” a bit before drinking it. The trick is to pour the wine slowly into the decanter and not let the gunk end up in the decanting glass. I have found that using a coffee filter over the glass decanter is very helpful in the separation process, especially if you don’t own a fancy funnel like this one: WMF Vino Stainless Steel Funnel.
However, the main technical reason for “decanting” a wine is to soften it up a bit. Some folks swear that it will take out the bitterness and any “alcoholly”, or astringent, tastes that a wine might have.
Here are a few tips if you decide to use a decanter:
1.) Older red wines (5 years or longer past their vintage or “born on date”) should only be decanted 30 minutes or so before drinking. Too much air on an older wine is not good because it speeds up the oxidation process.
2.) Younger red wines (and yes, even white wines) can be decanted an hour or more before serving.
One more tip about handling an older bottle of wine – set the bottle upright for a day or more before you plan on opening it. This will allow the crud to settle at the bottom of the bottle and make it easier for you to separate the wine from the sediment while decanting.
The one reason why I like to use a glass decanter is just for the aesthetics. Glass decanters come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Placing a beautiful glass decanter on your dining-room table makes any meal feel more special and festive over a plain old bottle. Here are just a few interesting ones to choose from:
Enjoy!
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