Hyper Decanting - Use a Blender to Aerate Wine!

[Barry_L_i_p_t_o_n]

This has come up in previous threads as well, and the reaction is typically the same as seen here.
I would ask those who decant their wines routinely why they do it. Scientific reasons to do it are to introduce oxygen and to allow the dissipation of dissolved gases. Both of these are accomplished more quickly with the “hyper-decanting“ method. That’s all. You are just speeding up that for which you would otherwise wait around a long time.
But, no surprise to anyone here, we wine lovers tend to cling to our anachronisms. Just take a glance at other threads in which a shocking number of people adhere to the notion that sticking a chunk of a tree in the neck of a bottle is more technically sound than anything modern science can come up with.

I don’t think a blender reduces dissolved gas. It’s the opposite.

Let’s have our resident physicists chime in.

[YLee]

Blender heats up the liquid and changes things in the wine.
Just like blending a protein drink, not recommended.

[John_Glas]

You could just save money and drink the wine over 3 days.

[Ben_M_a_n_d_l_e_r]

This has come up in previous threads as well, and the reaction is typically the same as seen here.
I would ask those who decant their wines routinely why they do it. Scientific reasons to do it are to introduce oxygen and to allow the dissipation of dissolved gases. Both of these are accomplished more quickly with the “hyper-decanting“ method. That’s all. You are just speeding up that for which you would otherwise wait around a long time.
But, no surprise to anyone here, we wine lovers tend to cling to our anachronisms. Just take a glance at other threads in which a shocking number of people adhere to the notion that sticking a chunk of a tree in the neck of a bottle is more technically sound than anything modern science can come up with.

I don’t think a blender reduces dissolved gas. It’s the opposite.

Let’s have our resident physicists chime in.

The blender will speed up equilibration between wine and air. That means the wine will lose dissolved carbon dioxide and some other dissolved gases (e.g. hydrogen sulfide), while gaining dissolved oxygen.

[David_Fischer]

By coincidence, I did this earlier this week. I remember reading about per decanting a decade ago and dismissing it. But … I was traveling this week and at the place we rented there was 2021 pinot from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. A good but not great producer. Wine was painfully young (did I mention that it was 2021?!). Since the bottle retailed for $21 and we had it for free, I figured there would be no better time to try this. First, at least for the wine I used, the amount of froth that was generated in the blender was wild. It died down but still … Second, upon drinking it, the wine opened up a bit a more and showed a bit more fruit. Third, I am not sure the effect was any different than a pretty good decant. So, while it might be a nice party trick with a cheap, young red wine, not sure I would choose to do it over a decant.

[GregT]

And that is the point.

After a friend told me he did it and it wasn’t a huge deal, I ended up doing it a number of times, just to see what happens and to satisfy my curiosity. First time I used a wine I really didn’t care about that was very cheap. But after experiencing the results, I got more adventurous.

The blending does warm the wine ever so slightly. No, you don’t get steaming wine. More like letting it sit on the counter for ten minutes. No big deal and probably imperceptible unless you really look for it.

And you get an insane amount of froth. That subsides rather quickly.

The best way to do it is to make sure you taste blind. So what we did after we found out that it slightly warmed the wine is put the blender jar in the freezer for a while and then pour part of the bottle into the blender. After blending for 30 seconds to a minute, the wines were exactly the same temp.

I poured them into separate glasses and went into the other room. Someone else brought the glasses out, not knowing what was in each glass, but assigning a random letter to each glass that they mapped to where the glasses were sitting. So none of us knew which was blended and which wasn’t.

The shocking thing, each time, was that you could barely tell the difference, if at all. That made me question the entire point of decanting, which is something that Mr. Rath has opined on.

I don’t think the results would be the same with a wine that was super closed or really reductive, or even the Graciano that I had last night that really opened up over some time. From experience it seems that air does help SOME wine. Nor do I think the results would be the same on a fragile older wine.

But for middle of the road fairly young wines, blending definitely did not destroy the wine at all. Didn’t improve it either, so I’m not going to make it a habit.

[David_Fischer]

And you get an insane amount of froth. That subsides rather quickly.

For me, that was the most (only?) stunning thing. Since it was my first time doing this, it really jumped out at me. I mean, it’s, it’s wild.

I think there was a difference from before per-decanting but I don’t think there is a difference between it and a regular decant (or a regular decant with a couple of vigerous swirls of the decanter). I haven’t tested that but that’s my impression FWIW.

[Michael_Hung]

After recently buying a Nespresso that came with a milk foamer, my friend had made a joke that we could hyperdecant a wine with the foamer… now I’m not sure if its a joke

[Greg_Harter]

Was at a Bordeaux tasting some years back, talking to the distributor pouring a First Growth. He said it was super tight when he opened it, gave it some time and wasn’t opening. He had the banquet staff bring him a blender. Yes, he said he ran the wine through the blender. Not sure I would have done that with that expensive of a wine, but it tasted wonderful!

[PeterH]

“The shocking thing, each time, was that you could barely tell the difference, if at all. That made me question the entire point of decanting, which is something that Mr. Rath has opined on.”

For more than 30 years, not a fan of decanting. Before that, I decanted religiously. I’ve lost a lot of religions.

[T_Williams]

Blender heats up the liquid and changes things in the wine.
Just like blending a protein drink, not recommended.

That’s why you add a few ice cubes first! (Applicable comment to both protein shakes and wine)

[Arnold_Caplan]

Lou Kapcsandy showed how microwaving a bottle; think it was 5 seconds per year; improved it’s taste by aging it. We did find a noticeable difference during the tasting.

[RichardFlack]

Hyperdecanting was originally from nathan myhrvold, the former CTO for microsoft.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

And molecular cooking author iirc

[RichardFlack]

At an offline many years ago, after several bottles were consumed, my attention was drawn to a blender on the counter. Half a bottle in the blender, on high for about five seconds and… the wine was completely ruined. It’s been over a decade so I don’t remember exactly what it tasted like but it was pretty bad. It definitely made the wine worse.

A friend suggested this with a young, tannic red we had opened at his house. With reservations about shearing forces on wine components, I suggested he only do a part of the bottle for a second or two. It was destroyed by the blender. Lesson learned.

F

I could maybe see using a Vitamix on max on a wine with heavy chunky tannins. Instant fine tannins….

Kidding!

[Faryan_Amir-Ghassemi]

Lou Kapcsandy showed how microwaving a bottle; think it was 5 seconds per year; improved it’s taste by aging it. We did find a noticeable difference during the tasting.

wait what

[Greg_Ossi]

Our group did this with '02 Mouton after it was released (and back when FGs were waaaay less expensive). Half the bottle was decanted for a few hours, the other half was “hyper decanted” via blender. Tasted blind, the blended version was showing more fruit but the wine was very disjointed. Everyone guessed which was the blended version. I would not recommend it.

[GregT]

“The shocking thing, each time, was that you could barely tell the difference, if at all. That made me question the entire point of decanting, which is something that Mr. Rath has opined on.”

For more than 30 years, not a fan of decanting. Before that, I decanted religiously. I’ve lost a lot of religions.

Same here. And good riddance.

[J0hnEhrl1ng]

Wine smoothie anyone?