The Auswine Forum

Do you guys find there is a general decanter shape that is better?

Maybe not one of these ones...

http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f ... 4&p=149652

While not advocating a specific shape, I believe the idea is to have a reasonably large surface area for the wine to come in contact with the air.

n4sir wrote:Maybe not one of these ones...

http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f ... 4&p=149652

Seriously just buy 3 of these 1L ones. Tough as nails, decent quality glass, easy to carry around. We use them at all our tastings. $30 for 3 decanters is a bargain. Always a good talking point and most importantly do a decent job of decanting.

https://www.westlab.com.au/consumables/glass ... th---glass

I think the flasks Dave put up are great...I think pretty much everyone who has brought regular decanters to an offline has broken one at some point...These are cheap and really strong...

Yes they're not as fancy looking..but very functional and easy to use. Unfortunately for most decanters, they look really cool, very fancy, very elaborate...but they're a pain to use...

got a 1 ltr Simax conical flask. tough as nails. $11 at the local science equipment supply place.
fella there said he sells em to the hipsters for $30..
gets bashed and trashed. Can give it a great spin too.

got a handful of other decanters that I paid a pretty penny for. never use em.
a bugger to clean. The ol flask straight into the dishwasher.

From a functional perspective, I don't think the shape matters much. You can use anything that exposes a large surface area of the wine to air. Even a glass flower vase would be fine.

As others have recommended, I use an Erlenmeyer Flask from a chemistry supplier.

Shape is important and I have half a dozen decanters including half-decanters I found in Prague. The half decanters are great for old wines as they minimise air contact and allow for assessment. Sometimes a wine into a half decanter gets re-poured into a full if a wine isn't yielding.

A one-litre Pyrex jug works a treat and is super easy to clean. It is also designed for pouring, unlike some decanters.

Pretty sure someone on here put me onto them. Excellent for pouring back into the bottle if double decanting.

Cheers

Michael

Muscat/port flagons do the trick nicely.

On the topic... What's your limit for decanting, age and time-wise? My Grange bottles say to even double decant but some people say to never decant anything over 20 years. It's hard to know what to do!

Do you find leaving in the decanter for a few hours is more for wines under 10 years while shortly decanting or double decanting, if only for sediment, is better for 10+ years?

The shape of a decanter doesn't really matter, just the size and the amount of surface area exposed to air. I'm not sure what Jamie means by a "half decanter" but I think the point he is making is correct, that a smaller decanter with less surface exposure is better for old wines that do not need aeration, or might be fragile, but do need decanting because of the sediment. I use a slim Riedel carafe for my old wines, like the 1981 Rioja I had earlier this year.

Nick, if there is sediment in the bottle, you always decant, regardless of the age. You do not want sediment in your glass. As for how long of a decant is necessary, it all depends on the kind of wine and its age. There is no fixed rule other than the younger the wine the longer the decant.

Mahmoud.

In all seriousness my favourite decanter would the this Zerrutti Deco decanter, which in some regards is similar to the classic Duck decanter. Years ago I remember seeing a video of James Halliday decanting an old Burgundy which demonstrated how gently it can be done with minimal disturbance to the crust. The angle allows a decent surface area to be exposed to air without going over the top, so for old wines to me this is an ideal design.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/ZGZp6e6.jpg[/img]