Hoping for a bit of help from the SQN/NOK knowledgeable members of the community. I’m planning on opening the NOK #2 tonight with some friends to celebrate my son’s 7th birthday. Any thoughts on decant time? Pop and pour?
thanks in advance!
NoK and SQN do not greatly benefit from long decant times. I would open, taste, and let it evolve in the glass over the evening.
Haven’t had any NoK but drink a lot of SQN. I usually like to open the more recent vintages the morning of and let them slow ox over the course of the day in preparation for an evening meal. This has worked really well for me with recently with Five Shooter and Dark Blossom syrah
I disagree especially for Next of Kyn. I would open it early and decant at least 4 hours before you drink.
George
What George suggests is in line with the Krankls’ recommendations for decanting younger SQN wines.
agree with george, but for all of their wines. have done many SQN tastings and the wines that get a 3-5 hr decant almost always show better
I usually enjoy a SQN over 3-4 hours… I prefer to see the way it evolves from sip to sip, as opposed to missing part of that brilliance in the decanter. Different strokes.
Jeff - definitely agree with you. Event the ones that Duncan decanted in the afternoon for our dinner in January needed more air time to fully show even when poured 6-7hrs later.
I think SQNs which are younger than 10 yrs need some serious air to unravel and show their best. Can they be excellent with an hour or two, sure, but the more time the better usually. In fact, at a couple of big dinners over the years where there were left overs consumed the next day, the wines were either the same or even better.
I don’t mind seeing the wines evolve over time but would at minimum give them an hour to 90 minutes - I would still then expect the last glass to be the best. 15+ yrs of drinking SQN has taught me that, though I won’t mind them from a pop and pour and they can even show wonderfully, when the last glass of every bottle is the best after a few hour dinner, there is no reason not to give it more air on the front end so that the first glass is even better. Quite frankly, it is also pretty typical that even when I have given them a lot of time on the front end and then followed them over dinner for a couple hours, the last glass is still the best.
At this point I still view 04/05 as relatively young and 06/07 as beginning to emerge…and so when looking at 08 to current, I either keep hands off or make sure that I plan ahead.
Thanks everybody for weighing in! Based on some of the feedback, and the fact that we were exhausted after a birthday party with 26 kids, I actually decided to sit on it a bit longer and focused on Carlisle and Saxum last night.
What? I was following this thread…