Decanter design

I’ve been getting more into wine and have appreciated how some wines can really open up with more time after opening. I have a Vinturi wine aerator and have heard of people even sticking wine into a blender, but both seem more aggressive than I want to do for most wines, and I’ve been looking into decanters. One question that I had was about design – is there something intrinsic to having a narrow mouth/opening and a wide base? Why can’t I just decant in a wide opening glass pitcher, or a clean glass tea kettle for that matter?

The wide base is important, as it allows more wine to be exposed to air. The narrow opening just makes it a pain to clean. I use a simple carafe type of decanter. Screw the duck decanters and things of that ilk.

haha nice. that’s what I was hoping for, anyway. I guess the one benefit to a narrow opening is less exposure to dust, etc., and somewhat easier to pour. But I’ll try a pitcher and see how it goes

We have a half dozen or so decanters, but my favorite “decanter” is a glass pitcher one would use for lemonade, iced tea, etc.

I love this one. Most do not have a convenient handle like this one does.

I think that decanter could changes the wine too fast in front of the age of it. Why strain it? It’s the beautiful and the soul of wine: waiting. It teaches us that the secret of life is to know how to wait.

In Italy, there are many rules to get at the top old wines (I mean over than 6-8 years). If the wine is old less than 6-8 years, one and half hour is enough after uncorking, and left simple in the bottle. But it must be located in the same room since 24 hours before, to have stabilized and balanced the temperature and the oxigene between wine and location. More, never wash the decanter with soap, only water, to avoid artificial smells. Soap often changes (or ruins) the wine.

If it’s over 10-15 years, One rule is to open the bottle before, 30 minutes for each years: 10 years old? 5 hours before. If it’s over 20, 30 years? Trust me, you can only throw away it, or keep the bottle as a trophy for your collection. I opened many Barolo 1964 some years ago (around 2010 if I remember). Bleah!

Man, I’m gonna miss List Man and great quotes like these.

Yes Dennis, those bottles are only to show, or to make famous the winecellar, but for the taste, if you are lucky, one each fifty is drinkable. Because they havent sulfites added to slow down the aging, and so, the natural evolution of wine is to become winegar. It is the nature. Anyway, I’m going to buy a bottle from 1947 on next days; should be fine drink it with you!

not an advantage with Burgundy where a carafe type decanter is better to avoid loss of aromatics.

Here is the shape of decanter that I find most advantageous, not this brand or style, just the shape:

+1

I got a nice one like that from Crate and Barrel for like 30 bucks. Yeah it was a pain to clean but a $10 decanter brush from amazon fixed that.

These Luminarc 1 Liter carafes can be bought for under $30 for SIX of them, work great, easy to grip and pour, easy to clean, diswasher safe. What more do you need?
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I use one of these. Hey, wine is an experience so why not put it in something sexy right?

http://amzn.com/B00YFH5YZK

Yeah but how do you clean that puppy?

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