Thoughts on decanting burgundy

What are the general rules or guidelines when it comes to decanting a burgundy?
I hear some always decant, some say never, some decant only young. How about white burgundies? Would love and appreciate thoughts/ preferences.

Thinking of opening a 10yr old Puliginy and an 18yr old Volnay (1er crus…)

The answer is variable…and the main point is : What is your purpose of decanting it ?

I usually let my reds develop in the glass. I love seeing what develops in the glass. But young red Burgundy from rustic producers or certain Villages (Pommard for example), I sometimes decant. I usually make a decision on decanting after 10 minutes in the glass.

There are no general rules when coming to Burgundy. White or Red.

If we are talking about good, aged Burgundy, then I find that slow-o is a much better approach. Decanting gives a big shot of oxygen to the wine, and while a young tannic wine may taste better afterwords, I find that finer and more delicate Burgs will be a bit overly softened, and will lack the vitality and fruit vibrancy that can make a fine mature wine really special. A cool serving temperature is also important.

If your Volnay is a '99 (18 years old), then it should be just about old enough to really benefit from this approach. How long ahead of time to pull the cork is another question, though in general it is hard to “overdo” it with slow-o as the approach is so gentle. I find 4 hours is about a good minimum, though 6, 8, or 10 may be better for many wines. I also pour out a small inital taste, for educational purposes, to see what the starting point is like, and also to enlarge the surface area a bit if the fill is high.

I cellar all my wines for quite a while, so sediment is firmly deposited and not an issue for me, though gentle pouring is also necessary. Then too, sediment softens as it ages too, so it’s always less of an issue with older wines (at least to my palate…).

I used to decant everything, but not any more. As an experiment, you can try slow-o-ing a bottle for say 8 hours, then decant half into a carafe and give it another 45-60 minutes before tasting both. Be sure both are at the same serving temperature… Naturally this isn’t to separate sediment, but only to explore the taste differences in the two approaches. (I always use a moderate surface area carafe if I do decant, though I suppose something like a Port or young Bordeaux would like a big bottomed decanter if it wants a lot more air exposure.

My preference is to decant both though I find it even more imperative for white. Length of time will vary based on the age of the wine though.

I’ll also use a carafe rather than a wide bottom decanter for reds. If I owned a wide bottom decanter I’d probably use it for whites.

Oh, and all my experience with 1999 reds is that that they were still shut down but I haven’t had one in the last year or so and someone recently reported a positive experience with a 1999 Volnay.

P.S. Good whites also can improve a lot with slow-o!

When my wine group has our monthly Burgundy tastings, I typically double decant my reds before I leave the office to separate wine from sediment. Somehow, for a great number of wines, the proper time seems to be the amount of time it takes to get from my office to a restaurant, say hello to people, order, drink some champagne, and drink a few whites. The Burgundy generally has opened pretty well in that time-frame. This highly scientific method has worked on a wide variety of Burgs over the years with little failure.

I have never decanted a white Burgundy, although sometimes I wish I had.

IMHO it´s good to decant both red and white Bs. with a certain age, but only after a several hour slow ox … and only immediately before serving …

Without slow ox the structure can get dry and/or sharp … then better pour directly from the bottle …

As with any question related to burgundy, you are going to get a myriad of opinions. For my palate, I try to always decant the whites as I believe it helps to get rid of some of the sulphur/reduction on the nose and open up the wines. Reds are generally pop and pour, and let them open in the glass over time. The exception would be if I know or suspect that the wine has a lot of sediment, then I would stand the bottle up and decant to get rid of the sediment.

Thank you all for the suggestions!
Wish I could run an experiment sometime, half a bottle decant with the other half as the control. Given its burgundy and good producer and site, its going to be an expensive one. Sigh!

I’d go even further. If you have a white that is tight on opening or reduced, but clearly is intact and does not suffer from undue and unintentional oxidation, it’s ok to shake the hell out of it after decanting (which also removes any tartrate crystals), or double decanting, and just before drinking or airing our further. It will promote release of trapped gas and aromatic volatile components.

Jayson, in fact, I heard the same from Raja Parr on white burgs. With reds he didn’t recommend, unless it was bottled with CO2 and no sulphur, like Fourrier’s wines.

This.

George

Here’s the rule… Don’t decant. Watch them open up in the glass.

I really haven’t had enough burg yet (only a few thousand by now so far) to be able to make up my mind.

(I think we are very good at fooling ourselves. I personally think any short time slow ox (eg 1-3 hours) does very little. I don’t think a gentle decant hurts many burgs. the discussion about letting the wine open in the glass is misguided for many of us, as many of us do small pours, and the wine doesn’t last that long with each pour for me, and worse, the wine warms up too much. I personally gently double decant many reds an hour or two before drinking, longer for a wine that i know will be very serious. If I open the wine, and it blasts from the bottle I may skip the decant. I should decant more whites, but somehow, I just don’t.

Also, be careful about the term “decant”. this has different meanings for different folks. I’ve been in decanting discussions where folks have claimed they never decant, and then find that they pour the wine into another container, clean out the bottle, and pour it back in, without regarding this as decanting. (I think some regard true decanting as leaving a wine exposed to air in a decanter for varying periods of time, whereas for others, it is the act of pouring the wine from the bottle into another container)

…100% agree

Like life…it is the journey that counts…