Decanting Wine: What & Why?

A Glass Decanter

What Is Decanting Wine?

Decanting wine means slowly pouring the wine from its bottle into a different container, without disturbing the sediment at the bottom. Wine is often decanted into a glass vessel with an easy-pour neck. Examples include the swan, cornett, duck, and standard decanters, which come in small, medium, and large sizes.

What Are the Benefits of Decanting Wine?

1. Decanting separates sediment from liquid. Decanting is first and foremost about separating wine from the sediments that settle at the bottom of the bottle. Red wines contain the most sediment, especially older wines and vintage ports, while young white wines contain the least. Sediment is not harmful, but tastes unpleasant.

2. Decanting enhances flavor through aeration. Aeration is the process of introducing oxygen to a liquid. This is also called allowing a wine to “breathe.” Aeration enhances a wine’s flavor by softening the tannins and releasing gases that have developed in the absence of oxygen. Decanting wine allows the flavors and aromas that were dormant while bottled to expand and breathe.

Which Wines Do You Need to Decant?

From young wine to old wine, red wine to white wine and even rosés, most types of wine can be decanted. In fact, nearly all wines benefit from decanting for even a few seconds, if only for the aeration. However, young, strong red wines particularly need to be decanted because their tannins are more intense.

Wines that should absolutely be decanted include:

Malbec;  Syrah;  Cabernet Sauvignon;  Bordeaux;  and Burgundy

An excerpt from: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-decanting-wine