Red wine..

There's no scientific need to use a decanter unless the wine contains obvious sediment.

They're really for presentation purposes only. Reidel make some good decanters, but if you dont mind bringing the bottle to the table id stick with that.

Bordeaux, decant

Bourgogne, don't

A fairly hotly debated topic among enophiles.

We have a nice decanter from Tiffany.  Reidel makes some nice ones, too.

For those who do subscribe to the decantation practice, it's generally limited to the more tannic wines; not burgundy and other pinot noir-based wines.

IMHO most good quality French wine need decant, unless they are very old.

I decant, for at least one hour, all red wines, all sweet wines and many whites. It is quite easy to test by one self; the effect is spectacular with good quality French wines.  It may be also true for other wines, but I have insufficient experience to say.

Aren't you a teacher? Hopefully not an English teacher!

We have the OENOLOGIE DECANTER from Baccarat.

This is a decanter with a plug.

You do need a plug to close the decanter.

(...where's Rod when you need him?)

We had a forum chat about wine a couple of years ago when 'rodwsmith' gave some insight to the needs of decanting, link below...

https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...6878607131610/page/2

I have found from experience that of most Tesco's red wine is best decanted strait down the kitchen sink waste.

It saves a lot of suffering and cleans up the plug 'ole very nicely...

But these days i have a better wine supplier, and i tend to decant all my merlot and Cabenet Sauvignon into one of those funny shaped wine bottles which have a very wide neck. I've re-used this [decanting] bottle lots of times but i make sure it's spotlessly clean before hand, sometimes sterilizing it with a Milton tablet : )

Debs

Not if you drink it quickly enough!

Hello!

A good rule of thumb is that any wine that benefits from age, benefits from air. A decanter is the best way to achieve that (as is swirling the wine around the glass).

But a decanter can be anything from a jug to another (sterilised) empty bottle to some weird 'sculpture' thing, It's increasing the surface area that will help expose the wine to oxygen and develop the flavours (while losing any unpleasant volatile components as well). Simply opening the bottle ahead of time doesn't make much if any difference as the surface area in contact with the air is unaltered.

Here's an idea (the mind boggles):

Why bother to keep wine at all if all you need to do is open it some period in advance? You might wonder. Big Bordeaux? Open three weeks ago last Tuesday. Unfortunately, the minute you open the bottle, airborne bacteria start to get at it and go to work. The greatest enemy is Acetobacter which turns fruit acid (nice) into acetic acid (vinegar). It's natural and all around us. You have about a week, depending on storage temperature and the nature of the wine.

Small other tip - decanters are hard to clean (all the more so in hard water areas). Leaving overnight with a solution of bicarbonate of soda will get rid of most stains and watermarks.

I decant most wines. But I use an easy-to-clean jug for all but the special stuff.

Aeration makes a massive difference. You may well have noticed that quite a lot of red wine tastes better the next day, if some gets left in the bottle. Many wines improve during the course of a meal. All for this reason.

Santé

Rod

I reckon this decanting thing is like naim warm-up...

Well, i guess it's like what they give to men when they need to pee in a hospital bed 

Debs

Simply returning it whence it came.

i don't know, Frank, i've never tried

Years ago, I gave a carton of Jungfraumilch to a friend*. He had to decant, since the stuff ate itself through the cardboard packaging. Dumping it in the sink would have been a natural hazard, but it worked well as anti-freeze in the car. (OK, he didn't use it as wiper fluid but the rest is true).

EJ

* a good joke can cost you friends but no money

I agree, I do the same.