What's the deal with double decanting?

I’m confused by double decanting. I can’t tell if it is supposed to be gentle and serve to limit oxygen (since it goes back into a narrow bottle) or just the opposite: to have two decantings and therefore expose the wine to lots of oxygen. When should I be single decanting vs double decanting? Thanks!

You’ll likely get a variety of responses. In my case, I double decant because a) I want to get the wine off its sediment, so I can pour to the bottom during a dinner without worrying about that; and b) more often than not I want to give the wine a bit of air, which double decanting will do, even if it’s not as much as sitting open in a decanter for hours. I’ll double decant younger wines, even white wines where sediment is not an issue, just for the air exposure.

Yes–I’d be intereested in some opinions on this. I rarely just decant for hours. I don’t like leaving wines in the cellar in a decanter because of various aromas, and if I leave a decanter on the counter for a few hours, the wine gets too warm. I double decant for air and for sediment. I personally think that exposing a wine to a lot of air in the decanting process, out of, then into, the bottle a few hours ahead of consumption, accomplishes as much or more air exposure than letting it sit in a decanter quietly for a couple of hours.

I do it when bringing an older wine to a restaurant. Avoids shaking up the sediment (since it’s gone) and gives the wine a chance to open up. Avoids a mishap on the way or a bad decantation.

In my head, I heard this in Jerry Seinfeld’s voice.

Alan, Alan, Alan! You were the one who demonstrated that virtually no oxygen penetrates the surface of a wine sitting in a decanter – that the oxygen is introduced by the splashing of decanting. Have you forgotten?!

If no oxygen penetrates the surface of a wine, how does an opened - then closed - wine under seal oxidize over time … through the bottle glass?

If you find the wine is getting too warm while decanting, you can put one of those squishy ice packs underneath the decanter. I keep one of the malleable ones in our freezer for both my balky knee and cooling down wines! In my area, this is key in the summertime. I also have one in a velcro cloth sleeve which is less likely to rupture.

I do it to get the wine off any sediment and where leaving the wine in a decanter is impractical logistically.

Yeah, but is it oxygen that’s the issue, or just equilibrating, or evaporating into a space? I double decant mostly, but after 35 years, I find the decanting discussions mostly confusing and inconclusive, without much of any useful input from those who actually know something about the physical chemistry involved.

I feel like this is the most common reason people do it.

Or if maybe you’re going to have the bottle sit out on the bar or dinner table for company, and you don’t want people dumping the sediment into their glass or your glass?

this is what i do. If i could i’d just pour it in the decanter and bring the decanter (which i’ve done).

One other plus: opening & decanting before bringing wine to supper gives one a chance to sniff for a corked bottle.

I thought you blokes tossed your wine into a liquidiser to get air into it. “Hyper decanting” was the term.

Friend of mine shattered a decanter by placing it too roughly in an ice bucket. If it’s a wine you need to keep on ice, a regular bottle is much more reliable

What’s the deal with Ovaltine?

I know exactly what John is referencing…after watching Roy Piper’s video blog, I tried to read as much as I could find on decanting. Roy’s method is to pull the cork in the morning / 7-8 hours before serving, pour off a tiny amount, jam the cork back in and back in the cellar. Pull the bottle out 30 minutes before serving to warm up a bit. It sounds like this is his preferred decanting strategy across the spectrum.

I stumbled upon these gems a couple weeks ago:

Putting a stake through the heart of “slow ox”:

The myth of letting wines breathe:

What’s fascinating is the wide range of decanting theory that I’m still finding, particularly in tasting notes. The unfortunate part for me is it’s yet one more thing I obsess over when debating what to open.

How do you guys handle the cork and capsule when you do this? They rarely go back in and on perfectly. I’m always concerned about how the restaurant will react. Ok to do for a friends house or the club.

A

You are decanting offf the sediment, rinsing out the bottle and pouring the wine back into the bottle for serving/transport to dinner where it can be then served from the bottle with sufficient air.

If the restaurant wants to make a big deal about the fact that I decanted the bottle before I came they can pound sand. There are other restaurants that want my business.

The bolded thread is the one I was teasing Alan about in my earlier post here.