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Why Decant Wine?

Decanting wines is not just about the ritual and ceremony, it can significantly enhance your wine experience. Commonly used for two purposes, decanting removes naturally accumulated sediment in old wines and opens up young wines. 

Consider a wedge of Triple Cream Brie that’s been out of the fridge for 30 minutes, the taste and texture wondrously morphs from bland and firm to luxuriously soft, creamy, rich and buttery.

Likewise, decanting young wines of less than five years, gives the wine some oxygen allowing it to “breathe”. This enhances the wine’s flavour, softens the tannins, and releases any volatile compound gases that may have developed. You can be quite vigorous when decanting a young wine, swirling the decanter to allow the flavours and aromas to expand. There are also many aerators on the market that speed up the process, maximising the exposure to oxygen as you pour the wine.

Many young-quality wines can benefit from decanting, so if you’re not sure, pour a taste straight from the bottle into a glass and compare it with one that has been aerated. You’ll likely find a striking difference.

Mount Pleasant and the best Hunter Valley shiraz are elegant medium-bodied wines with fruit, acid, and tannin in harmony. Whilst they drink beautifully young, many will reward cellaring. If you’ve cellared a quality wine for 5-10 years or purchased a museum wine, like the stunning 2014 Mount Pleasant 1946 Vines Rosehill Shiraz, you’ll want to maximise your drinking pleasure.

Drinking wine with sediment isn’t harmful but it will give a cloudy appearance and a grainy unpleasant texture. It’s best to stand your bottle upright for a day, allowing any sediment to settle to the base. You don’t want to lose delicate aromas, so tilt your decanter and carefully pour the wine, stopping as soon as the sediment nears the bottle opening.

Knowing how long to decant your wine is subject to much professional debate. However, older wines + 15 years can be fragile and may improve after just 20-30 minutes, whereas young full-bodied reds can use hours in a decanter to derive the full benefits.

So next time, have the confidence to try decanting your bottle of fine wine and elevate your experience and enjoyment.

(Image courtesy of Riedel)