I’m doing some wine tasting with friends this Friday and plan to open a 1985 Chateau Lynch Bages and a 2004 Produttori del Barbaresco Paje. I’ll be needing to bring the wines in their bottles ready to drink. My intuition on the Paje is to decant for 2-3 hours prior to replacing in the bottle, but what about the Lynch Bages?
Splash decant and slow o’ each of them… but that’s just me…
pretty young for the produttori. you can’t really do much wrong to that wine in terms of oxygen, short of opening it way too late. I’d consider going ahead and opening for a few mins and standing it up tonight even (assuming you mean this friday at least), then double decant an hour or so before you leave. thats a wine that 40 years from now you could open 8 hours early and be fine.
For the Lynch Bages, I’d also stand it up now, and either decant an hour or so before serving, or just open it a couple hours early and carefully pour from the bottle. You’re gonna get about 10 answers for this one though im sure.
I would just slow ox the lb and double decant than slow ox the prod, both for 4h.
I wouldn’t decant the Lynch Bages. Pop it and pour it. Though gently, as it will have sediment. Or decant and then immediately serve (to deal with the sediment). It’s fully developed and will likely be lovely as soon as opened. Though certainly hardy enough to stand up to a few hours of air … just not sure that will improve it. And depending how big your group is, my guess it will disappear fairly quickly, unless they don’t like aged Bordeaux (then you might consider finding new friends 
).
The 2004 Paje might benefit more for a double decant for a couple of hours before serving. I have less experience with these.
I’m a little confused by what other folks are writing. Once you decant a bottle, it ain’t gonna slow-o anymore, it’s already gotten a lot of fresh oxygen infused into the wine through the decanting process.
My understanding of slow-o is that it’s slow because you don’t induce a lot of mixing. The basic way to do this is to gently open the bottle, set it down, and let it stand. Of course, there’s a separate question about whether slow-o has any effect at all. There’s a mega thread going now here on this very subject.
My POV on this is that for youngish bottles slow-o has no effect. For very elderly bottles (40 years old and beyond) it can have a meaningful impact. Again, see the other thread on this subject if you have interest.
I’d open and recork both bottles. Drive to the restaurant. Juggle them from your car to the table. Pour really carefully and enjoy.
I always open, decant for sediment, rinse bottle and pour right back in, the wine may sit in the decanter for 1-2 minutes but that’s about it. I usually do this with older wines I’m going to consume at a restaurant as I don’t want to carry and mix up sediment. I also find this method works really well with older wines, pre 90’…
I don’t decant wines any longer for an extended time as I find that for me, it adds too much oxygen in the wines…
Do what JB says. Except for the LB do it right before dinner. For produttori 6 hrs before.
What I meant to say on the last line was older northern Rhone and Bordeaux wines. I think the slow o’ helps out a great deal with aromatics and brings the wine together…
I suggest slow ox the Lynch in the bottle, it is fully developed and has been drinking well for many years.