Decanting: Elitist nonsense or good practice?
More From: Curious Facts & Fun
Posted April 27th, 2009 by Matt Kane
Decanting: “Optional and controversial step in serving wine, involving pouring wine out of its bottle into another container called a decanter. ” Jancis Robinson’s Oxford Companion to Wine.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but there seems a perception among some that decanting, or letting a wine breathe, is completely unnecessary and only useful for showing off an elaborate, expensive and glorified crystal jug at the dining table. For most wines, in fact for all white wines, it’s completely unnecessary, and I’m sure there are indeed those who just like doing it to show off their jugs now and again.
Before the art of filtration and clarification, wine, often poured straight from barrels, had a considerable amount of sediment left over from the wine making process. Completely harmless, and usually the sign of a good wine, it can taste and look a little unpleasant, so it was the norm to filter this out with the help of a decanter. Nowadays most wines have been cleared of this solid matter before packaging, but some will develop in bottle with age.
The best reason I can see for using a decanter is to let the wine aerate. The large surface area in contact with the air in the decanter alters the wine, softening its youthful bite and encouraging the development of the more complex aromas that normally develop with years in bottle. For this reason even those inexpensive wines can benefit from decanting, if a first taste reveals a tannic, grippy, youthful structure.
Now let me now introduce you to Gary Vaynerchuk, the Internets most revered wine blogger and owner of Wine Library, a $45 million wine business based in New Jersey, USA. Gary gets over 80,000 viewers daily, and in the attached video he compares a freshly opened Amon-Ra with one that has been decanted. We stock the 100 Parker Point 2006 vintage, so if you ever have an occasion special enough to open this kind of wine, please, pretty pretty please, decant before drinking..!
Ps. Decanters don’t have to be expensive either. You should pick one up for around €10.
April 27th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
I’d actually argue that it is important to decant some white wines. Especially some young white Burgundies, which can be very closed/tight when first opened. You’d be surprised by the amount of extra flavour that can be extracted out of these wines with a few hours decanting.
What’s better than decanting is opening a bottle and enjoying it develop over a number of hours (6+), but this is not always possible. Personally I would never decant a red burgundy and would rather use this method (when the time permits)
For young bordeaux or barolo I think that decanting is almost essential if you are going to get through some of the tough structural elements in the wine.
April 27th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Must admit I haven’t decanted a white before but I’ll certainly give it a go. I heard of people doing it, just never thought of doing it myself.
With you on the young Bordeaux and Barolo. I think Veynerchuk nails it in the video. When people are buying reds off us, especially the pricier ones, I’ll always suggest they decant before drinking.
April 27th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
If only the Amon Ra was around €10!
April 27th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Don’t we all wish the Amon Ra was a tenner! You’d never buy a different red wine again.
I was surprised the first time I tried his Dolcetto Lagrein. There was a bit of sediment in it, which you don’t tend to get as much in the mid-range wines.
April 27th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
I decanted my first wine this weekend. Funnily enough it was an Amon Ra, and I used a €10 jug to decant it!
It was fantastic how the nose changed as the wine was exposed to the air.
April 27th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
How can he spit a wine like that!
April 28th, 2009 at 9:22 am
That’s the way to do it, Brian! We decanted the Amon Ra on Christmas Day for about 8 hours and I stuck my nose in it every time I walked past. Great stuff.
Grace, I’d like to think they took it home at the end of the video. This is one I wouldn’t be spitting out
August 30th, 2011 at 11:40 pm
[...] This post includes one of Vaynerchuk’s earlier Wine Library TV episodes, and it’s one of my favourites. If you’re only discovering him now, go to Wine Library TV and the Daily Grape to see more. You’ll find a wealth of knowledge and sheer entertainment. Thank you, Gary… from a big fan! addthis_pub = ‘[ACCOUNT-ID]‘; addthis_logo = ‘http://www.addthis.com/images/yourlogo.png'; addthis_logo_background = ‘EFEFFF’; addthis_logo_color = ’666699′; addthis_brand = ‘CuriousWines.ie’; addthis_options = ‘favorites, email, facebook, twitter, stumble, digg, delicious, google, facebook, more’; Bookmark & Share Gary Vaynerchuk, Industry news [...]
January 5th, 2012 at 5:40 pm
[...] new to decanting or if you are simply unconvinced by this traditional technique, be sure to read this post and it might just be the best new tip you learn this [...]