Double decant question

[Alan_Rath]

I have no idea what the answer is, but I have some thoughts: it all depends on what you think decanting is going to accomplish. Is it to expose the wine to oxygen? or is it to allow undesirable compounds in the wine (e.g., SO2 or other sulfur compounds) to escape? If the former, then double decanting seems like a functional solution, as the wine will absorb some air during the process (though I suspect much less then leaving in a wide bottom decanter for several hours, and swirling once in a while to mix things up). The the latter, then it seems to me that double decanting will accomplish little, as those compounds won’t have enough time to escape the wine during the few seconds of decanting.

[Cris_Whetstone]

I wouldn’t worry about using ‘double decanting’ incorrectly. It’s quite silly how it’s used. I always assumed it meant actually pouring wine into a decanter twice. But most people use it to mean ‘decanting and returning it to the bottle of origin’ which doesn’t quite work logically or by syntax.

What do you mean? Decanting doesn’t mean moving wine into a decanter, but instead moving liquid from one container to another, typically to separate solids from the liquids. Thus, double decanting means pouring the wine twice from one vessel to another - say, back into the bottle of origin.

“Decanter” just means a fitting vessel one can perform decanting with.

If this were the case then we would say I have many decanters of wine in my cellar. We don’t. We have bottles. Saying returning the wine to the bottle is decanting it is goofy and confusing. Someone was lazy long ago and didn’t want to say they returned their wine to the bottle so they said they “double decanted” it. But they didn’t.

How many times have you pour a bottle into another bottle to decant it?

[Alan_Rath]

How many times have you pour a bottle into another bottle to decant it?

I do it routinely. Have a particularly heavy bottle I use for this purpose, for stability. Funnel into my “decanting” bottle, clean out original bottle, funnel wine back into original bottle. I always assume this is what is meant by “double decanting”, though it doesn’t matter to me what the intermediate vessel is.

There is literally no reason to double decant into another decanter - once you have a wine in a larger vessel, you can just slosh it around to expose it to more air.

[Otto_Forsberg]

If this were the case then we would say I have many decanters of wine in my cellar. We don’t. We have bottles. Saying returning the wine to the bottle is decanting it is goofy and confusing. Someone was lazy long ago and didn’t want to say they returned their wine to the bottle so they said they “double decanted” it. But they didn’t.

How many times have you pour a bottle into another bottle to decant it?

What? Are you trolling now or just making an attempt at a lousy joke?

Just google the term “decanting”.

[Mark_Y]

Is that it Alan? The 48 hours is a desired/controlled time? Ok cool. I wouldn’t do it. But everyone is free to choose.

I was more wondering if that 48 hours is controllable. Can he do 20 hrs? Etc.

But why a subsequent 48 hour gap Alan?

This is why:

Give it a couple of hours in the decanter and then back in the bottle, cork it and pop it in the fridge for 48 hours, let the bottle come up to serving temperature and you are golden.
Accidentally did this the other week with a 2014 Bourgogne rouge that didn’t get touched at a dinner party and it was sublime after 2 days sitting in the fridge in a corked bottle

Lots of tannic reds open up nicely after being open 24 - 48 hours. On CellarTracker, there are plenty of tasting notes mentioning that a young Cab was tight the first night, and delicious the second and third. Alan has probably read this several times over the years and now wants to do it himself.

[Ian_S]

You people will nitpick about anything, won’t you?

[David_Glasser]

You people will nitpick about anything, won’t you?

Depends on what you mean by nitpick.

[James_Billy]

If this were the case then we would say I have many decanters of wine in my cellar. We don’t. We have bottles. Saying returning the wine to the bottle is decanting it is goofy and confusing. Someone was lazy long ago and didn’t want to say they returned their wine to the bottle so they said they “double decanted” it. But they didn’t.

How many times have you pour a bottle into another bottle to decant it?

What? Are you trolling now or just making an attempt at a lousy joke?

Just google the term “decanting”.

Yes. Decanting just means moving a liquid from one vessel to another.

Google:
"gradually pour (wine, port, or another liquid) from one container into another, typically in order to separate out sediment.
“he decanted the rich red liquid into some glasses”
synonyms: pour out, pour off, draw off, siphon off, drain, tap, tip, discharge, transfer
“the wine was decanted into a clean flask” "

[Jay_Miller]

Sorry if im using words incorrectly, never done that before !!

Im opening a big 16 cab that i know will take some time to open up to be drinkable. Now i know a lot of people would say thats a bad idea but i love young wines and i have multiple bottles and i want to understand the wine young so i can enhance my understanding of how it develops over the next ten years as i open a bottle every few years.

The reason for for decanting early is just one of time and convenience because ill have to drink the wine fairly soon after opening so i was thinking that a few hours in a decanter then rebottling would accelerate the breathing process when i do open and pour within the hour. Just opening an hour earlier would result in way to harsh a wine.

Other than Barolo and Northern Rhones needing long decants, young and old, I’ve come to think there’s no way of predicting what will work best for a given wine. I’ve had great wines popped and poured and also after four-hour decants. I’ve had others that were better when opened than after a decant; and others that were drunk without decanting and were so tight and ungiving that I was kicking myself for not using a long decant.

Count me:

If you chug it quickly enough, of course, none of this will matter.

But he says above that he has experience with enjoying this wine more after a long decant. The problem I see is that I know of no way to correlate to e in bottle post decant with time in decanter. My preference would be (if possible) to decant for maybe an hour less than the wine needs in his experience, back in bottle and head out to the dinner forgetting the 48 hours.

If. That isnt possible then I agree with those who suggest refrigeration post decant to slow any changes and wou,d give it Considerably less time in the decanter.

[John_Morris]

If this were the case then we would say I have many decanters of wine in my cellar. We don’t. We have bottles. Saying returning the wine to the bottle is decanting it is goofy and confusing. Someone was lazy long ago and didn’t want to say they returned their wine to the bottle so they said they “double decanted” it. But they didn’t.

How many times have you pour a bottle into another bottle to decant it?

What? Are you trolling now or just making an attempt at a lousy joke?

Just google the term “decanting”.

Yes. Decanting just means moving a liquid from one vessel to another.

Google:
"gradually pour (wine, port, or another liquid) from one container into another, typically in order to separate out sediment.
“he decanted the rich red liquid into some glasses”
synonyms: pour out, pour off, draw off, siphon off, drain, tap, tip, discharge, transfer
“the wine was decanted into a clean flask” "

Where is the pedant emoticon when we need it?

[Stuart_BeauneHead_Niemtzow]

To dive in on this thread…I am a big believer in aeration for old and young wines…and for getting rid of sediment in older wines to not confuse the tastebuds. How to do that in any given situation, as Jay corroborates is the real challenge. I have developed some criteria over the years, which vary over several criteria. I often find older reds better the next day…from many regions.

Some of the variables are the need to decant/ ie, pour off so the sediment is removed to a reasonable degree (I actually run it through a white, nonbleach coffee filter, as I think it does no harm and makes the wine cleaner). But, also, it depends on how much time I have; and how much of that time I have that I can actually monitor things. (When I don’t have time to monitor, I clean and then put the wine back in bottle and leave the bottle open…and leave enough in decanter to create some head space.) With pop and pour… the wine will be great initially and then shut down with no time to do anything about it. (That’s why I think wines often show better the next day). Aerating a wine for an hour, is , to me,“the worst of all worlds”. It will likely use up a good chunk of the grace period on initial opening…and then shut down, when you want to drink it). Long aeration can be good, if you have the time and time to monitor. But, the safest thing, to me, is to double decant. It does allow for some slow aeration, without the risks of other forms of prep…and the wine is cleaned.

Bottom line: there is no bottom line. It’s an art. And , we’re all trying to get the wine to show its best “under the available circumstances”. The “circumstances” vary widely, starting with the age , origin and cepage of the wine…and going from there to the cliff.

[Claus_Jeppesen]

Often people confuse aeration with decanting

[Hank_Victor]

You people will nitpick about anything, won’t you?

Depends on what you mean by nitpick.

[Alan_Eden]

So i did a 4 hour decant in a wide bottom decanter then recorked and left in fridge for 24 hours, opened and left for several hours to come up to room temp. Wine was in good condition but still not very drinkable, it was a Carter 16 BTK Cab. The wine was way to shut down, hints of chocolate and plum, tannins there but not to puckering.

It was an experiment that failed miserably, stay away from these wines for a long time, dont know if thats a 16 thing but regardless i will not be opening anymore 16 cabs in the next 5 years

[Jake_Rubash]

Obviously too late to the party but I’d have been interested to hear your thoughts if you had initially poured yourself a glass and followed it over a couple hours… We’ve had good luck with 16’s with minimal air.

So i did a 4 hour decant in a wide bottom decanter then recorked and left in fridge for 24 hours, opened and left for several hours to come up to room temp. Wine was in good condition but still not very drinkable, it was a Carter 16 BTK Cab. The wine was way to shut down, hints of chocolate and plum, tannins there but not to puckering.

It was an experiment that failed miserably, stay away from these wines for a long time, dont know if thats a 16 thing but regardless i will not be opening anymore 16 cabs in the next 5 years