Wine Dacanting | Red Wines

14 February 2013

Wine Decanting

The act of decanting is done with the intention of separating out the sediment from the wine.

While it is not an absolute necessity for wines, it’s most important when used with aged red wines, such as ports, where the sediment can be a problem.

When wine is left, tannin and other particles such as suspended pigments solidify and form sediment. This sediment should be removed because it decreases the quality of the wine; making it taste bitter, and less pleasing on the eye with bits floating around.

However it is quite possible to remove this sediment. You do this by keeping the bottle in an upright position for a few days before decanting the wine; this allows the sediment to sink to the bottom of the bottle. You then very slowly pour the wine carefully into the decanter, while watching the neck of the bottle for cloudy wine, when you see this you know that too much sediment is in the remainder of the wine.

Decanting wine other benefit is that the wine is aerated in the process, and allows it to ‘breathe’; this is beneficial to wines, in particular young red wines. This should be done quickly with young red wines to expose the wine to as much air as possible. While you may think that you can aerate wine by simply taking the lid off and letting it stand for a while, this is wrong, because there is not nearly enough air getting through the small opening.

An expensive decanter is not so important; any large glass will work just as well, although a nice decanter might add a certain ambience to the experience.

Certain wines will benefit more from decanting than others, for example young, tannic red wines, like a cabernet sauvignon, Bordeaux and a lot of Italian wines because their tannins soften over time and the flavour becomes less harsh. Overall, the younger and more tannic the wine, the longer that it needs to breathe.

A young vintage port benefits from a few hours of aeration because of their young tannic. Older vintage ports have to be decanted because of all the sediment that builds up in it over time. It helps if the bottles stand upright for a few days, however if need be, an hour will suffice. Have a go, experiment and hopefully it will increase the level of enjoyment you get out of your passion for wine.

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14 February 2013

Wine Decanting