Do you "pop it?"

A while back, I attended a tasting at the home of a pretty knowledgeable wine geek. We were tasting a Pinot Noir, and it was mentioned that it seemed a bit tight or closed-down. One guest said, “I think we need to pop it.” He proceeded to put his thumb over the bottle and shake it very vigorously. I’d never seen this before. I asked a local wine shop proprietor about it and he seemed very familiar with the practice, saying that it’s an old trick used by wine reps to open up a newly-uncorked bottle if need be.
So, I am wondering if this is a practice familiar to many WBers, and whether there are significant benefits to it, i.e. does it “work”?

I prefer to use a blender. :slight_smile:

George

I’ve never “popped it” but have read about it several times to include on this site. People say it works; I’ll probably try it eventually.

Screw Mollydooker. It’s the Fourrier shake.

It’s just a way to get air rapidly into the wine, and also a way to get some trapped CO2 or Nitrogen out. It can work, but it can also potentially leave a wine tasting a little flat. Obviously, you need to do it only on younger wines with no sediment.

It’s probably fine for most young wines, but it’s not something I do.

And of course, it lends itself to a bad pun for those thick, sweet Mollydooker reds.

Aside from sediment, I see nothing wrong with doing this to young wines. I can’t think of a reason it would damage the wine in any significant way. I don’t think travel shock is real either, though. I see a lot wrong with calling it “popping it.” :wink:

I wouldn’t do this with older wines.

I’ve found it very useful for young, screwcapped reds and the occasional cork finished red that seems a little aromatically muted. You will get a little pop as some trapped gas escapes. IMHO, it can really help a young wine perk up.

I was at a local wine tasting where the winemaker opened a new bottle for me, poured himself a small taste and then put his thumb over the top of the bottle and shook like hell. So much for the idea of travel shock.

I’ve done this often with wines that show spritz of secondary fermentation. Gets rid of it quite nicely.

No kidding!

One reason to do it is if you have a young recently bottled wine and it’s got a lot of sulfur, you can help dissipate that by shaking. And you can aerate it. I’ve done it a lot of times. Or you can do a hard decant and shake the decanter, which is even better as those are bigger than the bottle.

It’s not exactly the same as travel shock, which I’m not quite sure about. In this case, you’re not likely to do it unless you’ve removed some wine, as the idea is to incorporate fresh air. With travel shock, you only have what’s in the neck and perhaps temp and pressure changes that may or may not matter. Mostly I don’t know that it’s a good idea to shake up an old wine that may have thrown a lot of sediment over the years. Other than that, I wouldn’t argue much one way or another about travel shock, especially for young wines.

I had a batch of homemade wines that I guess didn’t completely finish ML and got a little fizzy in the bottle. . . didn’t blow any corks, but I’ve been shaking the bottles in this manner after we open them to get rid of the petillant quality.

Doing a sloshy decant is accomplishing the same thing.

But so much classier.

I heard it used for Mollydooker years before I heard it used for Fourrier. Even the comments on the page you linked to refers to the former.

I do this fairly frequently when opening young wines which have spritz or are otherwise in need of air.

I should probably use my decanter more often, but usually it doesn’t seem to be worth the cleaning hassle for an inexpensive young wine (and we drink a good number of those).

Yes.

Why is this in Wine talk?

I prefer to run it through this for an hour
Overly Young Wine Aerator - Bordeaux and Burgundy Version.jpg

so are we changing the meaning of “pop and pour” aka “pnp” to reflect this new terminology?

I’ve never heard it called that, but I use this technique. It works pretty well when decanting isn’t possible or convenient. I especially like this when I want to get excessive (smelling) SO2 out of the wine as quickly as possible. I usually pour out a few ounces and then repeat the shaking/opening method several times.