{"id":2091,"date":"2022-04-28T17:54:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T17:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2091"},"modified":"2022-04-28T17:54:23","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T17:54:23","slug":"decanting-wine-how-when-and-if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2091","title":{"rendered":"Decanting Wine: How, When and If"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is only one reason we know that you MUST decant a bottle of wine.\u00a0 If the cork breaks as you open a bottle and\u00a0you can\u2019t get it out, the only option is to push it in.\u00a0 This makes decanting necessary.<\/p>\n<p>After that, there are several reasons why you might WANT to decant your wine:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A decanter of wine on the table is attractive and adds to the pleasure of a meal.<\/li>\n<li>The wine is too young and needs extensive aeration.<\/li>\n<li>The wine is quite old and needs a little aeration.<\/li>\n<li>The wine is quite old and probably has a lot of sediment that you don\u2019t want to swallow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/decanting.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-2092 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/decanting-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"641\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/decanting-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/decanting.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 641px) 100vw, 641px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Photo courtesy of The Manual.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Some restaurants decant wine, perhaps in an effort to justify overcharging.\u00a0 Some people decant wine because they think they look cool, even if it makes them look cork-dorky.\u00a0 And then there are the occasions when Aunt Gertrude is coming over for dinner and she gave you the decanter.<\/p>\n<p>Wineries generally don\u2019t decant their wines, although they should.\u00a0 They mostly serve younger releases that might benefit from some extra air.<\/p>\n<p>If you are going to decant a bottle, here are some tips.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t decant too early or too late. <\/strong>A younger wine, and even one well within its drinking age, can be decanted hours earlier than you plan to serve it.\u00a0 This is not a requirement but it does get the maximum benefit of airing out the wine.\u00a0 But in our opinion, \u00a0if you\u2019re serving a very old wine, decant it just before serving, to let out some of the accumulated gasses in the bottle without losing flavors.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Simple decanters work just as well as fancy ones.<\/strong> The objective is to expose the wine to air and to leave the sediment in the bottle.\u00a0 The ones that are examples of the glass-blowers\u2019 art may be very pretty but not so easy to pour from.\u00a0 A simple carafe can do the job.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t decant too fast, but don\u2019t make a big production of it, either. <\/strong>As the wine passes from bottle to decanter, it all meets air.\u00a0 If you pour too quickly, you\u2019ll lose some of this benefit and are more likely to get some sediment into the decanter.\u00a0 Restaurant sommeliers and dedicated snobs will pour the wine very, very slowly, in front of a candle.\u00a0 That way they can see the first little bits of sediment and stop pouring.\u00a0 All very dramatic, to be sure, but the same thing can be accomplished in front of a well-lit white or light colored wall or even a piece of paper.\u00a0 Yes, pour slowly, but be reasonable about it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Consider double decanting.<\/strong> If you\u2019re serving\u00a0a bottle you\u2019ve saved for a special occasion, you might actually want to see that well-anticipated bottle on the table.\u00a0 So if you think the wine would benefit from decanting, do so.\u00a0 Then pour the sediment out of the bottle, lightly rinse with a bit of wine and pour the wine back into the bottle.\u00a0 You\u2019ll maximize the aeration as you pour twice and you still get to see that pretty label.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is only one reason we know that you MUST decant a bottle of wine.\u00a0 If the cork breaks as you open a bottle and\u00a0you can\u2019t get it out, the only option is to push it in.\u00a0 This makes decanting necessary. After that, there are several reasons why you might WANT to decant your wine: &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2091\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Decanting Wine: How, When and If<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2091"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2093,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2091\/revisions\/2093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}