I have a good mate who opposes the merits of decanting red wine to make it better, he hasnt had any bad experiences with decanting but typically stubborn he wont give it a good shot.
Without entering into the merits of decanting or not decanting can anyone nominate some reds that i could pick up for say <$30, that is a perfect example of showing significantly better after about an hours decant than on initial opening.
I'll buy two for the experiment (aka "tutorial" ), 1 to decant, 1 to drink upon opening but we will have them at the same time.
Do the same wine. Mask them, and open one for a couple of hours before hand with a decant. The other open straight away. Has been done before on numerous occassions, though not necessarily for the better of the decanted wine.
Wines to use? I'd actually show a young Kiwi pinot from a reputable name.
Cheers,
Max ----- Avant d’être bon, un vin doit être vrai
Wolf Blass Grey Label Shiraz seemed pretty good when I had it after being decantered. Probably doesn't matter if decantered or just left to breathe though. The wine needs an hour or 2 to open (in my view)
Last edited by scuzzii on Thu Sep 14, 2006 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
On numerous occasions, wine has improved (for me at least) after an hour or so, in bottle, preferably with a glass or two out of it. I tend to double decant these days - pour it back and forth earlier in the day so that the bottle remains emotionally attached to the wine, rather than off to the side somewhere. Having said that, not sure really whether this helps in all cases, other than to get rid of the sediment.
Cheers Wayno
Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities.
I would try any good bottle of young wine that you or your friend would normally drink. After all, the idea is to see if decanting improves the everyday red wines you drink, not the occasional exceptional wine. In my experience it is better to decant a wine at least an hour or two before you plan to drink it, unless of course you are opening an older bottle. On the odd occasion when I have some wine leftover it invariably tastes better the following day.
A few people from various fora have run these trials in the past. The main problem that seems to come up is bottle variation.
Other than that, try to keep everything else constant - including temperature. If you intend to put the reference bottle in the fridge for a while to cool it down, make sure you pour the decanted wine back into its bottle and put into the fridge at the same time. Oh, and when rinsing out the bottle, use distilled water.
One wine that really blossomed with air-time recently was the 2004 Glaetzer Bishop shiraz. Upon opening it was all over the place - volatile and angular. With a heap of breathing time it improved immensely - it had lost its hard edge and was much more perfumed. Then again, it may have just been my tastebuds playing tricks on me...
), 1 to decant, 1 to drink upon opening but we will have them at the same time.
