There is something magical about decanting a wine, whether or not it really needs it.
Pouring from a standard bottle into a fancy oddly-shaped glass receptacle makes the drinking experience more ceremonious.
But is this extravagance necessary? More often than not it is simply unnecessary.
For practical purposes, we decant for two reasons.
- To aid in the breathing of a wine – generally a young wine.
- To remove the good wine from its sediment or the particles that begin to form & “drop out” of an aged wine.
There is some benefit to the first, but as readers of this blog know, I am an advocate of both the vinturi aerator for young wines as well as rigorous glass swirling for aid in breathing with a young wine.
And as for the second, careful pouring can prevent sediment from reaching the glass and as such makes the idea of decanting somewhat frivolous.
But it is this second reason that has the inventors of this new bottle claiming that the decanter will soon become extinct.
It seems the shape of this new bottle cleverly enables the sediment to get trapped in the bottom “compartment” preventing the escape of sediment from the bottle to the glass.
What will they come up with next…???
Happy sediment free Wine Tasting!
WTG
Tags: decanter, decanting wine
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It’s certainly an interesting idea, but I think you are spot on with your comment that there is something ‘magical’ about decanting. On the right occasion, it is part of the theatre of serving and drinking wine and I don’t think it can be replaced by a new kind of bottle. A bit like the way real cork will never die out completely as they are so tied up with the tradition of wines, especially in Europe – irrespective of the fact that you risk the occasional ‘corked’ bottle of wine.
I agree, the Vinturi does an excellent job with younger wines. With older wines that contain sediment, I typically do use a decanter, but pouring so that the sediment does not enter the glass (or if it does, simply not drinking it) can work just as well. I’ve also had members tell me they use coffee filters and cheese cloths, which also seem to do the trick. So is the funny-shaped bottle really necessary?
Thanks for an interesting read.
Paul Kalemkiarian
President, Wine of the Month Club
Recently, I have come across many blog posts about these new bottles, which aim to trap sediment and I feel that it is a very good idea for modern wine drinking.
Generally, things develop and there’s no reason whatsoever why the wine bottle shouldn’t also develop in shape and function, despite the saying “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!”
In my opinion, I don’t feel that decanters will become extinct, because they do make drinking wine even more fun.
I was at the boston wine expo Cru and tasted the wine tasting cookie that was being offered, and found it yummy but I could not find it anywhere.
I live in boston, and having a wine tasting gathering. I think it would be intersting conversational piece. Have you tried it and where can I find it.