As I was deciding whether or not to open a bottle of dessert wine tonight, I realized I didn’t know if I needed to let it breathe or decant like I would for other wines. Never had much experience besides a few random sauternes here and there and those were all PnPs. Do sweet sherries like Pedro Ximenezs and other maybe more aged Sauternes benefit from air?
Short answer is yes. Longer answer is that as with all wines it depends.
I wouldn’t try a top 2001 Sauternes today unless I could give it a long decant. But I wouldn’t give the same treatment to a middling 1971. I’ve had a la Bota PX last, and to the extent that I remembered, seem to improve sitting open in the fridge for over a month. I wouldn’t treat one of those ubiquitous Alvears the same way.
In my experience, Sauternes can be plagued by volatile acidity, in which case decanting helps it blow off.
Check first, though. If no VA is discernible, decanting will do nothing except dispel some of the most subtle aromas.
When it comes to vintage Port, there is a huge range of dissent. Some decant Port for 24 hours or more. While that does remove some of the “heat” from the spirits (Aguardente is supposed to be neutral), I prefer to experience wines changing over time as they unfold.
P Hickner
Interesting. Maybe I will have to do an experiment. Never really thought that much about dessert wines Since I was never a fan.
I find decanting helps good years of vintage port. Of course one is not able to take that extra step in all situations.
I do not think it matters as much with Sauternes, where I think chilling helps more, especially if a vintage leans flabby, like 2003 or 1990.
Depends on the kind of sweet wine. Fortified or Botrytis? Bottled aged or wood aged? Alcohol content? These all make a huge difference. I’m a big believer in aeration for wood aged fortified wines, up to a point. If wood aged, then kept in bottle for a long time, then they need more. If in glass less, then less time. Botrytis wines depend on alcohol content. Low content, like Germans seem more resistant than higher alcohol ones like Sauternes. I would treat Sauternes like red wine.
What Peter and Eric said. It depends.
PX sherry is already oxidized for years. Air won’t “help” it, but it doesn’t hurt it and like Jay, I’ve kept them open in the fridge for months. Doesn’t necessarily improve, but doesn’t get worse either. Ditto most Madeira. You may want to decant to get rid of the bottle funk if it’s been in the bottle for a long time.
Sauternes is different. That takes on notes of caramel and toffee with age but as mentioned, there’s often some VA. Same with wines from Tokaj. I like them younger rather than older, but they can have some VA issues and air can help in those cases. But otherwise, you just lose aromatics and there really aren’t any quite like those, so they’re kind of nice to keep around. The issue with those tends to be temperature - many of them are served really cold and that’s good, but they’re more aromatic as they warm. OTOH, that also makes them become more cloying so unless they have a lot of acidity, you’re not going to like them as much. Because of the acidity, I think you can drink Tokaji-aszu warmer than Sauternes, which tends to be flabby even in great years.
Vintage Port is a different story. It was bottled before it really became wine and it wasn’t racked so you need to decant to get rid of the sediment if nothing else.
Still so much to learn… never ends does it?
Never. If you think you’ve learned it all, you really don’t know much at all…
Man isn’t that the truth. Lately I’ve been drinking and exploring southern Italian whites, something I never paid attention to before. A whole new world with which I’m utterly unfamiliar.
I was thinking the same same.
I freaking love this board.