We’re starting to get to point where we’ll have wines finally old enough to drink themselves.
Any tips on how long to decant these bottles? Or things we should know as we start to enjoy them?
Thanks!
The main point of decanting is often to leave the sediment in the bottle. You can check with a flashlight whether there’s enough to bother with.
After that, how long before the wine is drinking at its best depends on the wine. Some need time to open up, others are at their best shortly after they’re opened and start to fade. Probably you want to taste a little of the wine right away to see if it’s tasty or closed or in between.
For wines with sediment — especially port — I use a paper coffee filter over the decanter mouth. Crude but effective.
As for the aeration aspect of decanting, I think it’s minor. I pour wines for blind tasting into decanters almost every day and usually don’t notice any difference after an hour. That’s an outlier view but I don’t believe what anyone says unless they prove it blind.
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Oh grasshopper you have much to learn.
Buy a wine basket
When you’re ready to drink your wine, pull it from your storage, keep it horizontal. Gently lay it in the basket. Let it sit unopened in the basket for 20 to 30 minutes (longer the better) for the sediment to settle into one corner of the bottle.
Open and decant the bottle slowly . Use your phone flashlight underneath. Once the large pieces of sediment start to travel to the top, stop decanting. But this process will give you 99% of the bottle as clear wine.
No need for coffee filters (which don’t work as well anyways)
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A friend just wrote this comprehensive essay on decanting.
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Thank you, @Clayfu!
It took a little used to, but we were able to enjoy this bottle. What was particularly surprising was that it needed very little time to open up.
That’s why you want to taste a little right away rather than assuming a wine will need X amount of time.