Wine · Terminology
Decanting
Pouring wine off its sediment, and into contact with air, before serving.
Decanting is pouring wine out of its bottle into another vessel before serving. It does two quite different jobs, and confusing them is the source of most bad decanting advice.
The first is separation: old reds throw a sediment of polymerised tannin and colour, and decanting leaves it in the bottle. The second is aeration: young, tight wines open up with oxygen, their reductive notes blowing off and their aromatics unfolding.
In practice
- For sediment: stand the bottle upright for 24 hours, pour slowly and steadily in one movement, and stop the moment sediment reaches the shoulder. A candle or torch under the neck shows you when.
- For aeration: pour vigorously, use a wide-based decanter, and give it 30–60 minutes — longer for young, tannic wines.
- Very old wines are fragile. Decant them at the last moment, or not at all; an hour of air can flatten a fifty-year-old Burgundy.
- Whites benefit more often than people expect — young, reductive, oak-fermented whites in particular.
Where you'll meet it
- Old Bordeaux, Barolo and vintage Port — the classic sediment cases.
- Young, tannic reds that need coaxing open.
- Unfiltered and natural wines, which are often cloudy and reductive on opening.
Decant or not?
| Wine | Decant? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Young, tannic red | Yes, 1 hour+ | Softens grip, opens aromatics |
| Mature red with sediment | Yes, gently, just before serving | Clarity without exhausting the wine |
| Very old, fragile red | Barely — decant at the table | Air can collapse it within minutes |
| Vintage Port | Always | Heavy sediment; robust enough to take air |
| Sparkling | No | You would lose the mousse |
| Delicate aromatic white | Usually not | Little to gain, freshness to lose |
Practical notes
- Temperature drifts up in a decanter. Reds served too warm lose definition, so decant cool and let the glass do the warming.
- A decanter's job is surface area. A narrow carafe barely aerates; a wide-based one does a great deal.
- If you decant and the wine shuts down, wait — some wines close for an hour and come back.