Why and How to Decant Wine

We love wines, for the tipsy feeling it brought, for the complex taste it contained, for the elegant color it presents. However, have you ever think of making wine tastier after you have already obtained it? Yeah, by aerating your wine, you will get a magic result. Here let’s talk about something about decanting wine.

Why to decant wine?

We decant wine for mainly two reasons, one is for separating the sediment with wine, and the other is to soften the wine. Young quality wines are full of tannins which make the wine bitter and acerbe. By decanting, wine gets a wider contact with air and oxidization process is accelerated. It does help to release the bouquet and flavor of wine, making the taste smother.

On the other hand, quality red wines age with sediments, which not only fades away its original charm but also influences the wine taste. By decanting, you are supposed to separate them with wine and bring back its gloriousness.

However, it is not all the wines that are suitable for decanting. Only wines that are either too young or at peak maturity are suitable. And most white wines are not suggested to decant, nor does shelf wines. Since you can consume them in a day, why bother to decant them meaninglessly?

How to decant wines?

We say the cores of decanting are separating and oxidizing. So before decanting, you should keep the bottle upright for 24 hours or more before opening it so as to let the sediment drop into the bottom. After washing cleanly your decanter and drying it out, you can remove the cork of your wine and then light a candle beneath the neck of the bottle. The lighted candle provides a warm environment for oxidization and also helps you to identify the sediment in the bottle. Then you can pour the wine into the decanter slowly. The wine in the bottle can be exposed in the air for alternative time, and it depends on your wine and your preference. You can have a sip by time to catch the best taste of it.

Someone asks for recommendations for decanters recently and here is my suggestion– Ecooe Glass Wine Decanter. It is designed with unique aerating lid which enables the decanter to aerate and decant wine at the same time. The 100% lead-free borosilicate glass design further makes it a reliable product that does no harm to healthy and easy to be cleaned.

To sum up, not every wine needs decanting. Only wines that fall into the young and mature age spectrum worth decanting. As decanting always goes with red wine, you may also be curious about whether white wines can undergo decanting. The answer is yes and no. High-end wines that can age benefit a lot from decanting whereas most daily young whites do not need decanting.