Provided By: Brix33
One very important topic in fine wine that is commonly forgotten is the topic of decanting. While it is a term that you have probably heard, there is a good chance that you don’t actually understand the purpose and process behind this. Understanding this will help you understand wine even better, and you can even use this information to impress your friends.
So for starters, what do you think the definition of decanting is? If you said to let to let something sit and breathe (a common misconception), you guessed wrong. The actual definition of decanting is “to gradually pour a liquid from one container into another, especially without disturbing the sediment”. With this in mind, letting wine sit in a decanter is not decanting the wine…pouring the wine in to the decanter is decanting. The primary goal is to remove sediment and particles from the wine.
In order to accomplish this goal, you should begin by placing the bottle upright for at least 24 hours to allow the particles to settle to the bottom. Once this is complete you should remove the stopper/cork and wipe the neck. With a bright light shining in to the bottle (so you can see the sediment), take your bottle and decanter and begin pouring your wine SLOWLY in to the decanter. The goal here is to pour the clean wine in to the decanter and leave the sediment in the bottle once you’re finished.
Lastly, you can choose to let the wine sit and aerate for an amount of time, however this is not required. It takes experience in wine tasting to know which wines to decant and which ones not to decant. Typically the older the wine, the less you let it aerate. This is because you will miss the ‘opening up’ of the wine, which is something you want to experience. Remember this, when you begin pouring wine out of a bottle, you are exposing it to air for the first time since it was bottled. When it comes in contact with the air, it transforms quickly. You will want to experience this for yourself, so come down to Brix33 in New Port Richey FL for our weekly fine wine tastings!
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