Wednesday Wine 101
Decant verb \di-ˈkant, dē-\
On today’s Wednesday Wine 101, we’re discussing decanting; when you should do it and why.
From Merriam Webster:
to pour (a liquid, especially wine) from one container into another
There’s 3 main reasons why you would want to, or need to, decant a wine:
1. To remove sediment.
As wine ages, particles begin to “fall out” of the wine and settle at the bottom of the bottle. While no harm will come to you if you drink it, it’s not overly pleasant as it can taste bitter, and moreover, the texture is fairly repulsive – sort of like sand or sawdust. It sticks to you teeth and you look like you been driving in a convertible without a windshield.
To remove sediment, leave the bottle upright for a number of hours to let the bits settle at the bottom of the bottle. Next, remove the foil from the neck to ensure the best view. Take a bright light source, like a flash light (though in fancy places they’ll likely use a more romantic, but less practical, candle), and, holding the shoulder of the bottle above the light, slowly pour the wine into the decanter. as sediment reaches the neck, stop pouring. And voilà, sediment is now separated from your wine.
Be prepared: depending on the wine, you may “lose” up to a quarter of the bottle. If this is upsetting to you, you can always pour the remaining, sediment-infused, wine through a coffee filter into another decanter and go from there. It’s not the most sophisticated gesture, but neither is wasting good wine, so do this away from judging eyes.
2. For temperature control.
If you have been storing wine in the fridge or a chilly basement, you may need your wine to warm up a bit and release the aromatics (more on that next). The quickest, easiest and most friendly way to do this, is to pour your wine into a new vessel.
3. Aeration
Largely the most common – and most important – reason for decanting. Exposing the wine to air allows the wine to open up and breath a bit, releasing aromatics and unveiling the nuances in the wine. Think about it: wine’s a living thing and if you were trapped in a bottle for a number of months or years, you would need some time to loosen up. Just like most of us wake up gently with a coffee and don’t spring out of bed and run a marathon, wine also needs a bit of time before it can offer its best.
Pour the wine into a large-mouth vessel, whether that be a fancy decanter or juice jug, and in most cases allow 30-60 minutes of aerating. For very intense wines like a Barolo or Bordeaux, several hours could be needed.