Decanting wines serves little purpose

How many people here agree with me on this? I have seen by reading that many wine drinkers decant their wines before drinking as a matter of course. they seem to believe that you shouldn’t drink your wine unless it is exposed to air. Some people take this to extremes, and I have read on the internet of people who don’t drink their wines unless they have been open for a day or even longer. I believe that there is no reason to do this other than habit. Except for sediment, there is no reason to decant wines. And careful pouring an dhanlding of the bottle mitigates the problem with sediment usually as well.

If a wine needs to breathe, it can do that sitting in the bottle as well as in a decanter. The amount of air it gets is exaxctly the same. If a wine needs air, a quick swirl in the glass will give it all it needs.

Dissolved air into any liquid will make it taste better. In addiiton, some air into wine may help the aromas escape better, making the wine more fragrent. But extended air time does nothing but oxidize the wine. And that is never good.

Going to decant a cab for dinner now!

This is the goofiest post I’ve ever seen!

Bob, Great stuff here. Just 1 month and 1 day too soon. [berserker.gif]

You are wrong. That is all.

I disagree with almost your entire post.

Bob, I couldn’t disagree more.

Example: 2 or 3 years ago Justin Wells brought a 02 Merus for a dinner at Roy Hersh house. He decanted it for 12 hours and it beat out the 01 Sloan and 98 Grange. But the point is that the Merus would never have been that good without that long of a decant. Young wines need the air to open…

I really can’t believe you believe different.

Please put me in the camp that disagrees with you as well. Although not ALL wines need decanting, there are definitely some that benefit from it.

A decanter allows more surface area of the wine to be exposed to air, more so than a bottle would.

I think this is some sort of psychological experiment to see who posts what here…

Does that mean I’m doing something wrong when I decant champagne? [shrug.gif]

Well, it looks as if, so far, no one agrees with me. I know I am not alone here. Even Robert Parker has said that he rarely decants young Bordeaux up to the age of 10 years. After it hits 10 years of age, decants for 30-45 minutes at most if he does it at all.

Do wines evolve with air? Sure. But why do you want that to happen somewhere else other than in your glass? [shrug.gif] I have always likened enjoying wine toenjoying a symphony. You don’t want to come in at the very end. You miss most of the performance, and therefore most of the enjoyment that way.

Now, there are exceptions to what I said: there are few absolutes in life. But a great wine should drink… great. Whether it has been open 10 minutes or longer, if it is great, it should drink great.

Try an experiment sometime. Pour half your bottle into the decanter, and leave half in the bottle to breathe. Follow both wines. Once you pour them into your glass, and give it that obligatory swirl to get the second nose, you’ll find no difference in evolution between both samples. Then you can come back and sing the praises of the only guy whom has ever turned down Halle Berry for a date. [blackeye.gif]

Steve:
While I disagree with you, you are the only person who tried so far to provide some experience as a reason to decant. I will say that what you say above doesn’t sway me, though. I gave up my Merus mailer based on my trial of the 02. I didn’t like it at all, so I stopped buying it. I have had the 01 Sloan, and I liked that even less. I gave up my Sloan spot too. I realize that both wines got big scores and reviews, but neither of them are my cup of tea. So, I would think that the Merus would beat the Sloan under any conditions, decanted or not. At least for my tastes.

Totally disagree.

Try this…go grab two bottles of 2003 Fonseca Vintage Port. Open both, put one into decanter leave other in open bottle side by side on the counter. Come back in 24 hrs and tell me if they taste exactly the same…guarantee you they won’t.

No, they will not taste exactly the same, of course. My point is not that wine does not evolve with air. Of course it does. Only that it the same thing is obtained when you swirl the wine in your glass. And of course that missing a wine’s evolution is missing the fun.
In the case of this wine, I have had it a couple of times, and it was at its best when it was pop and pour. Of course, this wine has many, many years to age. But when drinking a young wine like this, too much air flattens it out and softens the fruit. That initial gush of fruit, at least at this young age, is when the wine is showing its best. At least for my taste.

A young port may be an exception, but most wines will be showing signs of oxidation after 24 hours of being open if no attempts are made to preserve it in some way.

Geez, Bob, I dunno whether to agree with you outright, or pull your body away from the angry mob while you’re still alive. [foilhat.gif]

Depends on your definition of great.

I have had many, many experiences of decanting bringing a wine around. I can think of several white burgs that were opened and left open in the bottle, and then a glass was poured and the wine wasn’t there. It was then poured in a decanter and did it’s thing. I don’t think the glass is enough, nor is an open bottle enough sometimes. There are “great” wines that don’t drink “great” in their youth and simply need as much air as possible to bring around.

Bill, the psychological results are in - you posted exactly how you were projected to post. You will now be referenced somewhere in the New England Journal of Medicine article…

Hudak trying to give psychiatrists a bad name? [emot-pwn.gif]
In the last six months Ive opened an 05 Mayback that had no aromatics off the bat and took about 6 hours to open up (kept tasting it) An 05 Ramey Pedregal (3 nights ago) that literally had no finish and finished great on day two. 05 Reva 3 hours or so, Atlantis 4 hours or so…and the list goes on…could I have poured each bottle into 4-5 glasses and let them sit for several hours? sure but i find the decanter one hell of a lot more convenient… [gheyfight.gif]