decanting advice for 1997 Taylor vintage port

hi, we are taking our daughter and her friends out for her 24th birthday and i’m planning on bringing a 1997 taylor either to the restaurant or to her place afterwards to celebrate. i was thinking of decanting it 10-12 hours beforehand, but would appreciate any recommendations/advice.

Thanks!

Never decanted port before. Does it really make a difference to decant since its fortified?

Lol yes. Vintage Port often throws a ton of sediment. Bringing an undecanted bottle of Port to a place is going to be a disaster - I’ve seen this happen all too many times. And I don’t understand what fortification has to do with anything here?

Coincidentally, we had 1997 Taylor’s VP only days ago. Carefully decanted off the sediment, the wine was surprisingly ready right from the get-go, but seemed to hit its sweet spot after about two hours in a decanter. Stayed there nicely for another 2-3 hours, until the bottle was finished.

I decant them to get out the sediment though they don’t need air.

I am probably out on a limb by myself here but…

I always decant VP 3-5 days in advance. Been doing this for at least 20 years or more.

Stand it up in the cellar for a month and then decant very carefully into a decanter and leave the decanter in the cellar. Put it back in the bottle when you need to transport it. I find the volatile brandy spirit element personally unappealing and I find that after 3-5 days the brandy spirit note disappears and the fruit character is enhanced.

YMMV!

6 hours, then pour it back into the rinsed out (and by then dry) bottle.

I’ve found VP much better a day after decanting 100% of the time. I’ll usually pour back in the original bottle after rinsing it out also. Enjoy.

I haven’t had this wine, but I’d decant it for a few hours and rebottle if a couple of days before.

8-10 hours is good. It’s hard to over decant this unless you leave it for a few days on the counter.

My mileage definitely varies! In our recent tasting, one VP started to get tired already after that 5-ish hours of decanter.

Also some older VPs I’ve kept open for several days have often started to get tired after a day or two. Younger VPs can stay perfectly fine for days but whereas older (+20 yo) might remain fruity and drinkable, in my books they almost always also lose quite a bit of depth and complexity after already one full day, let alone several. And these are often wines that are just double-decanted, ie. decanted off the deposit and then moved back into a rinsed bottle, so the oxygen intake is kept at minimum.

So while one might lose that aguardente character over 5 days of aeration, I really don’t see how the fruit character would be enhanced. You’ve just lost five days’ worth of volatile fruit compounds there. A young VP might still have enough of those to stay good, but not an older one.

Or then I just like my VPs more fruity and vibrant, less. At least I could imagine that in a blind tasting I would describe a VP decanted for five days as a bit tired, if all the other wines were opened only hours before.

Oxidative wines are a different thing. A good Colheita or a Tawny can be opened weeks in advance without any deterioration in quality, because the wine has lost almost all of its youthful, fruity qualities years ago.

Does this vary with the age of the Port? Would you use this method for a 20 year old Port the same as a 60 year old Port?

Decanting VP is a widely varying thing based on the age and producer. Example; a 1997 Taylors VP needs a much longer decant than a 1997 Sandeman Vau Vintage Port.

The question was for one particular VP. Let’s not muddy the waters and keep answers to that one VP. Thanks.

Decant in 20 years.

97 is still a young vintage for port-- I would stand bottle up a few days before to let sediment sink to bottom. I would decant bottle 10-12 hours before hand if feasible. Pour over unbleached cheese cloth/coffee filter ( i do this on top of the glass wine funnel I use).
If unsure if consuming whole bottle I would consider immediately pouring 375mn into a 375 ml bottle after decanting and toss in fridge to enjoy over next week to 10 days.

For sediment yes. I didn’t even think about this. We usually use filters for VP sediment at home. I meant just to drink, I don’t think decanting makes a huge difference. We drink VP over a period of 1-2 weeks at home, don’t notice a difference over time.

Hi Otto, I don’t doubt you are correct here. To make matters worse I often drink them over a period of a week or more.

I have found over time I just prefer them this way, but I am sure many / most here on WB will prefer them fresher as you do.

Most of my ports are from the 1970s and 1980s (have not started on any younger than 1985)

Brodie

That sounds even weirder to me! Most of the 1960’s-1980’s Ports that I’ve kept for several days suffer badly from keeping them just for a few days, some even from keeping them overnight. Sure, they can be delicious for even a few weeks afterwards, but if these older wines have retained some youthful fruit upon opening, they tend to have lost most, if not all, of those qualities in a day or two - some turn even quite oxidative. Fortunately the sweetness helps with the oxidation, so one could say they tend to drink like sort of Colheitas. So while these wines can still be fully enjoyable for many days, I think by then they’ve lost most of the stuff that makes the wines so wonderful - which is why I’d never personally recommend anyone else to decant their VPs for more than a few hours (unless it’s a very young vintage - as in approx. 5 years old - or known to be reductive or otherwise suffer from volatiles that get blown off with aeration).

But, as they say, different strokes.

So much this.

Perfectly said.

Thanks for all the advice. I appreciate the expertise on this board.