Should you decant your wine?
Decanting wine . What is it? Is it even necessary?
You don't need wine courses for the solutions to these age old questions.
Decanting wine is just pouring you wine into another container with the concept of letting your wine aerate or mix with oxygen. The idea is that "letting the wine breath ' will reinforce your flavour.
Do this work? Does this do any good at all? Well let's find out.
Like most traditions, they're based primarily on fact or information that was relevant long ago. You need to notice that wine not like anything else, maybe besides baseball, is steeped during the past with practice.
I believe most individuals still need to perceive a certain romantic facet to wine.
But winemaking, like most industries has modernised. Small local family owned wineries might still use some of the more traditional methods in making their wines, but they are definitely a minority.
What this actually means is that something that was critical to do to wine 100 years back, usually is not necessary today.
Way back, most wines weren't filtered, meaning that tiny remaining pieces of yeast from the fermentation process would in time settle in the base of the bottle.
They haven't any taste or don't hurt the wine in any fashion, but they do not look extremely appealing. So that the low tech answer was to simply pour the wine into another container and leave the small amount of sediment in the bottle. Problem solved.
My personal guess is that some clever marketing type turned this negative into a positive by claiming that because they decanted, their wine was better.
When in reality they were just distracting people from the sediment. I mean actually, who would like to look at wine cooties? I do not. I'll bet you don't either!
In modern winemaking, this sediment is filtered out before bottling. So except in extreme cases, when it's the winemakers choice not to filter, you'll never see sediment in the bottom of modern wine bottles.
So what about decanting to let the wine breath.
Before winemaking was modernized, many wines were aged in caves and sometimes the corks could pick up aromas.
The reason you let the wine breath was to dispel any of those unwelcome smells. Most bottles failed to have the plastic bottle tops we use today.
Today, most wines are stored in climate controlled warehouses and capped with a plastic cork cover. In addition to just looking better, the plastic bottle cap helps keep the cork and bottle free from outside scents.
So short of the theatrics of decanting wine, which I must admit can be fun, I'm not a massive fan of decanting.
But with that said, it certainly does not hurt the wine and if you enjoy doing it or like entertaining your guests by the process , by all means keep on decanting.
Some of my winemaker mates might disagree with my opinion here and that is OK.
I would accept that wines that are very dear and have been made in more standard tactics could profit from decanting, but the standard wines that we buy for Tues. night dinner doubtless won't.
So whether you choose decanting wine or not is your decision. But at least you now know the reasons behind you choice.
You don't need wine courses for the solutions to these age old questions.
Decanting wine is just pouring you wine into another container with the concept of letting your wine aerate or mix with oxygen. The idea is that "letting the wine breath ' will reinforce your flavour.
Do this work? Does this do any good at all? Well let's find out.
Like most traditions, they're based primarily on fact or information that was relevant long ago. You need to notice that wine not like anything else, maybe besides baseball, is steeped during the past with practice.
I believe most individuals still need to perceive a certain romantic facet to wine.
But winemaking, like most industries has modernised. Small local family owned wineries might still use some of the more traditional methods in making their wines, but they are definitely a minority.
What this actually means is that something that was critical to do to wine 100 years back, usually is not necessary today.
Way back, most wines weren't filtered, meaning that tiny remaining pieces of yeast from the fermentation process would in time settle in the base of the bottle.
They haven't any taste or don't hurt the wine in any fashion, but they do not look extremely appealing. So that the low tech answer was to simply pour the wine into another container and leave the small amount of sediment in the bottle. Problem solved.
My personal guess is that some clever marketing type turned this negative into a positive by claiming that because they decanted, their wine was better.
When in reality they were just distracting people from the sediment. I mean actually, who would like to look at wine cooties? I do not. I'll bet you don't either!
In modern winemaking, this sediment is filtered out before bottling. So except in extreme cases, when it's the winemakers choice not to filter, you'll never see sediment in the bottom of modern wine bottles.
So what about decanting to let the wine breath.
Before winemaking was modernized, many wines were aged in caves and sometimes the corks could pick up aromas.
The reason you let the wine breath was to dispel any of those unwelcome smells. Most bottles failed to have the plastic bottle tops we use today.
Today, most wines are stored in climate controlled warehouses and capped with a plastic cork cover. In addition to just looking better, the plastic bottle cap helps keep the cork and bottle free from outside scents.
So short of the theatrics of decanting wine, which I must admit can be fun, I'm not a massive fan of decanting.
But with that said, it certainly does not hurt the wine and if you enjoy doing it or like entertaining your guests by the process , by all means keep on decanting.
Some of my winemaker mates might disagree with my opinion here and that is OK.
I would accept that wines that are very dear and have been made in more standard tactics could profit from decanting, but the standard wines that we buy for Tues. night dinner doubtless won't.
So whether you choose decanting wine or not is your decision. But at least you now know the reasons behind you choice.
About the Author:
Mark is a pro winemaker, previous winery owner, author and frequent speaker on wine. He now helps people to learn about wine with his wine classes all though the U. S..