Decanting Wine Questions???

[grahamg]

Here's some quick questions for anyone who is interested...

What sort of rules do you use when deciding how long to decanter a bottle of wine?
Some people talk about some wine dyeing in an hour and others about needing to decanter for 24 hours.
Also if they're leaving it for a long time do they cover it somehow or perhaps pour it back into the bottle?

Unlike those lucky people with a walk in cellar, I use a small wine fridge to store my wine. There is no space to put a decanter or even an upright open bottle. So when I decanter the wine it warms up to the wrong serving temperature. Should I put the decanter in the kitchen fridge for 20min before serving and if so should it be covered to avoid taint from whatever food is in my fridge?

And hopefully one for this weekend - how long should I decanter a 92 Cape Mentelle Cab Sauv?

I recently left out half a glass of Claire Valley clean skin for a couple of days as an experiment. I wanted to get more familiar with the oxidised fault. Especially after visiting the Hunter Valley and thinking that half the shiraz I tried was oxidised!?! The experiment didn't work however because after two days it smelt better than when I had the bottle. Wasn't game to try it though because by this stage two dead bugs were floating in it.

Graham

[cuttlefish]

...those two bugs weren't dead, they were just hammered !
Haven't you ever fallen asleep in an "ocean" of red wine ??

Tom.

[grahamg]

I normally moderate my drinking except for an incident involving my bath tub and 6 cases of 2000 Grange.

[Red Bigot]

Graham, this is an oft-debated topic, see here for some past threads:
http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.p ... =decanting
including my approach...

For the Cape Mentelle 92, decant just before serving to remove the sediment, shouldn't need much breathing.

To control temp, do a double decant back into the same bottle (after rinsing if necessary), sample for soundness by pouring half a glass, replace the cork and put it back in your wine fridge, there should be enough air action to have the desired effect unless it needs longer aeration, in which case decant earlier and decant back into the bottle/fridge later.