Just to pick that nit to death, unless when you decanted the wine the first time you also sealed it off from the air you haven’t “exposed it” twice. It was ‘exposed’ when it was opened.
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Well, you know that my contention is that once the wine has settled after being poured, nothing is getting in or out in the time frame that could matter to most decanting situations. So it doesn’t much matter if you stopper it or not. I also am reasonably confident that pouring once into a decanter, glass, bottle, whatever, doesn’t completely saturate the wine with air, or allow whatever volatiles are going to escape to do so. So the first “decanting” (regardless of the receptacle) does something, and the second “decanting” (back into the bottle) most likely does about the same again. My own belief is that a double decant is exactly that; you’ve exposed the wine to air twice as much.
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My point wasn’t about stoppering. Its that the wine is already exposed. Unless you pour argon over or something else, what’s done is done. Its got air in it and will now be constantly exposed until all consumed or else. You can’t stop it interacting with the air by not decanting it or just letting it sit.
Go back and read my thread from a few years ago about “slow-ox”. Whatever interaction the wine is going to have with air takes place while you’re decanting. Once it’s settled, and just sitting there, almost nothing goes in or out, at least in the space of minutes or hours that most people decant. It’s the act of pouring/splashing/moving that exposes more surface area to air, and even then it’s probably saturated at a very low level with just a single pour. You need to swirl it around, expose it over and over, to make any difference.
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I hear that but experience it telling me otherwise. What that implies is that if I open a bottle and just let it sit then it will essentially see no change no matter how long its open. Do you believe that would be that case? I sure don’t but if I believe that it takes moving it from container to container to get any exposure to the air then what matter is it popping the cork?
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Read this and draw your own conclusions. My answer is that you can pull the cork and leave the bottle sitting there for probably days without noticing any difference. The top few mm will change, but not the bulk of the wine.
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But hey, hopefully that Rivers Marie will ship soon. Test driving one of the new releases by just opening one and decanting another of the same bottling could be fun.
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Musar might be a candidate for a worthwhile very long decant.
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Just to be clear I was not trying to rehash some former threads (multiple) on the decant vs. slow ox. Not that those aren’t fascinating and worth a debate. I was specifically focused on “6-12-24” in a decanter. I just can’t get my mind around doing this…OR maybe I should. Anybody got some specific examples? What is your max? Personally, I don’t think I have ever decanted a bottle more that 3-4 hours. Any specific examples?
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So did you end up doing an, oh I dunno…3-day wine review?
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I usually put them in decanter and place it on the top shelf of wine cabinet
Examples
Andremily 24 hours and it wasn’t enough
MacDonald always 6-12 hours when drinking them though this will shorten as some of my early bottles are getting close to puberty
Pretty much any big Napa cab under 10 years old gets 6-12 hours and often longer
I don’t understand the big deal. I do it routinely
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Many new(ish)-release Bdx. not only benefit from 24+ hr. decant, but do so greatly. This was true of the 2019 Duhart Milon I had a couple weeks ago: much better on Day 4 than on Day 1. On Day 1 it went into a decanter, and the remaining half of the bottle was poured back into the bottle at the end of the night, recorked, put into fridge, and then brought back to appropriate serving temp. on Day 4, at which time it was showing markedly better, imo.
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Back in the late 90s, a friend, before serving an 82 Gruaud Larose, would decant it for 12 hours. It certainly did benefit from that. At Chateau des Tours, they recommend opening their wine and pouring a little bit out and letting it sit in the bottle for 24 hours. With trial and error, I have come to prefer twelve. Both time periods do create distinctive change to the wine. I will accept Alan Rath’s scientific conclusions that slow oxidation cannot be the cause of the change. Experience tells me that he is wrong that there is no change at all.
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By the way, based on your experience, do you recommend that wine? A local Costco had it for $62 or so, I bought two but wonder about getting more.
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I decanted a young 17 Di Co for over 12 hours, it was still too young to be drinking. And by decanting I mean actively in a decanter first thing in the morning (7 AM) and finished after 10 PM at night.
Large syrahs I would certainly decant 6+ hours. I have a 13’ Bedrock Weill a Way on the counter for tonight. Need to open it and get it some air, will probably decant for 3-4 hours.
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For me, only madeira goes in the decanter for 24 hours or more. I’ll sometimes decant an old barolo all day or part of a day. But for me, almost all reds start to show stale elements the longer they are open, even young tight wines. Even just being opened, recorked and refrigerated overnight, reds are rarely better for me day two or after. Whites can sometimes improve over the course of 2 or 3 days, to my taste, but even then I don’t decant them all that time.
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Any recent release Beta Cabernet
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2019 Levet La Chavaroche
Needed every minute
I bought 3 at the same store and price. Day 1 I was a bit disappointed. Day 4 brought satisfaction that I have two more, but I’m not going to buy more; I opened one early specifically to determine if I wanted to stock-up. If I was just starting out with building our cellar, I’d buy more; as it is, however, I don’t perceive the need or have the desire given where we’re at. IIRC, it was a 92 - 94 wine, and I think I wrote Hold at least 10 years. It was stupendously oaky on Day 1, but was showing far more Paulliac character on Day 4. Didn’t strike me as super-structured, but not loose, either.
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Hi John,
I give older Nebbiolo a long decant (6-12 hours) and it is always better for it. You wanted names so recently I thoroughly enjoyed a 1970 Francesco Rinaldi e Figli Barolo after an 8 hour decant.
Best Regards
Jeremy
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