Decanting for oxygen
When you pour wine from the bottle into the decanter, air enters the wine. But if your goal is to encourage the wine to open up, letting it rest after pouring can cause certain additional changes.
As explained by Dr. Sacks, a couple of processes take place simultaneously when wine is exposed to the presence of air for more than an hour.
If you smell an odor of rotten eggs or a lit match upon opening, this is generally a sign of hydrogen sulfide. Thirty minutes to an hour in a decanter can help release those compounds, allowing you to re-evaluate the wine for its other properties.
Aerate wine to let oxygen do its job
If a wine's initial taste is promising, decanting may not be necessary. Carefully pour the wine directly from the bottle into the glass. If you choose to decant, use a decanter with a narrow bottom that provides less opportunity for air to integrate and further alter the wine.
A common belief is that the older a wine is, the longer it can take to open. But Mannie Berk states something more specific: "Wines that are exposed to a lot of oxygen before bottling usually respond well to oxygen once the bottle is opened," Berk says.
For Madeira: decant at least one day per decade of bottle age.
Those Barolos, Barbarescos and Riojas that respond well to decanting are, for the most part, vinified in a manner more heavily exposed to oxygen.
The most extreme example Berk offers is Madeira, a wine that sees both oxygen and heat during production and is said to last indefinitely after the bottle is opened. "If Madeira has sat in bottle for a long time, you may want to decant it for a few days to a few weeks before drinking it, because it needs to change from an oxygen-deficient environment to one where it can enjoy oxygen again "he says.
Berk's rule for Madeira? Pour at least one day per decade of bottle age.
How do you know when a wine is enough with decanted?
The winery Château Musar in Lebanon is known for releasing wines at the highest level, with an extensive range of bottles going back decades, with offerings from the 40s and 50s still on sale.
Marc Hochar, whose family founded Musar in 1930, says decanting is crucial for their wines to reach their full potential. He recommends decanting for at least 30 minutes, but cautions that the process of finding a wine's best moment is not so simple.
"To enjoy the peak of the wine after you open a bottle, you need to taste its evolution from the moment you open it. You have to understand where it started and where it ended. It's like watching an athlete at the top of his career, "says Hochar. "If you understood where and when he started his training as a child, how difficult the road was to reach the top, you would respect his achievement even more and see it in a different light."
Decanting is not just pouring a wine into a fancy decanter. It is a powerful tool to have in your arsenal, one that can greatly expand what you get out of this living beverage. While there are effects and reactions we can identify, there is not always one answer to whether a particular bottle should be decanted.
All you can do is taste and ask yourself if there is anything to be gained from the process.
Should all aged wines be decanted?Do older wines need more time to decant?
Contrary to popular belief, decanting older wines is far from an ironclad rule. Burgundy, for example, is known for its delicacy, and the question of whether or not to decant is often hotly debated among experts. However, older vintages of Nebbiolob wines, such as Barolo and Barbaresco, along with Rioja and other full-bodied wines, are generally good candidates for decanting.
To decant or not to decant
Dry Furmints from Hungary and Austrian Grüner Veltliner and Riesling can be worth decanting. Many white Burgundies are vinified in reducing environments, and increasingly producers from around the world are also making reducing styles of Chardonnay.
"Depending on the producer, I find that a quick decant can help bring out the fruit and minerality," Morris says. White wines from the Northern Rhone and some Trebbianos from Abruzzo may also have characteristics that can benefit from decanting.
Older wines from certain regions are also likely candidates. Scott Turnbull of The Restaurant at Meadowood in Napa Valley, decanted white Rioja and found that it improved the wine. Morris says a decant can help aged German Riesling, which can be a bit funky.
Stokes attributes this to the winemaking practices for these wines. "German winemakers often use heavy doses of sulfur to prevent their sweet wines from re-fermenting in the bottle," he says.
Nea Berglund, winemaker for Château Carsin and Charivari Wines in Bordeaux, says people should also consider a decanter for white Bordeaux. "I often decant older vintages of white Bordeaux, but not the last few years," she says. Berglund says older white Bordeaux wines are more expressive at warmer temperatures. She recommends decanting the wine and letting it warm to room temperature for half an hour before enjoying it.
