Kill your darlings

Well, decanting or, for that matter aerating, a wine, you all have heard about it and I guess practiced it once a while. Look, I do not get into this ritual often (read: almost not). And there is one simple equation to explain this.

Decanting = oxygen = ageing

Or, pouring your wine from the bottle into a decanter is giving your wine loads of oxygen. And, well, oxygen to a wine means the same as ageing. So, upon decanting your wine you give it a serious aging shock. Just imagine a mind boggling beautiful girl of 25 that in 10 minutes changes to a wrinkled women of 75. Well something like that also happens and that’s why I do not (often) decant. You see, I do not like to kill my darlings!

But the sediment you will argue. Oh yes, an aged red has a lot of sediment. However, decanting is just not the right solution. Ok, you will get rid of that sediment, well that is if you stop decanting at the right moment. But you will also have added a lot of oxygen, or, in other words, your aged wine will be aged even more. And in the case of an aged wine this means often destruction!

Conclusion, decanting is murder in the first degree when you have a mature red which has just aged beautifully.

So, pretty please with sugar and a cherry on top do refrain from decanting in this case. Potential alternatives are:

1. When you go to your cellar and fetch this precious gem of an aged wine, use a basket. Keep it horizontal, move it as little as possible (that’s why you have to put your labels above in sight) and put it in that way in the basket. The sediment will be in the below part of the bottle and will remain there. Difficult part is the opening of the bottle since it lies down in a basket. Try it a few times with inexpensive bottles and you will get quickly the hang of it.

2. Another option is to get this bottle the night before and put it upright. In this way the bottle has all night and all day (until that fancy dinner) to find its way to the bottom of the bottle. And then, at dinner, instead of decanting you just pour gently the glasses of your hosts while you keep an eye on this sediment. If it starts roaring its ugly head, well then it is time to open a second (third, fourth, …) bottle.

Ok, I guess by now you have asked the question when can I use my precious decanter, please tell me that there is an opportunity to use my decanter. And yes, there is.

I get out my decanter for the young wines that are capable of aging, for instance Barolo, Brunello, certain Bordeauxs, etc. In this case you will also age them. But if I could use again the reference to a woman, you will turn a little bit shy teenager into a gracious women, and then, but only then, is decanting recommended.

On a personal note, I have ordered this great young (watch out my words, thus young) Le Savennières of Nicolas Joly, the pope of biodynamics, and the waiter decanted this wine. Well this is a wine that just needs decanting and gets so much better with it.

So one conclusion, choose your decanting darlings well otherwise you might end up killing them! And you just don’t want to kill your darlings, believe me!