Decanting a wine should not only help to separate any deposit in the bottle from its more desirable contents, but allows a wine to breathe. Breathing helps to dissipate some pungent odours that might have developed in the bottle and can add emphasis to the more desirable flavours that remain. The process of decanting immediately and rather vigorously aerates the wine, reducing the time required for it to breathe to its most drinkable degree. Once inside a decanter or jug, the wine’s larger surface area also helps it to breathe more effectively. Red wines both young and old can ‘throw’a crust or sediment which you’d rather not pour into the glass. If in doubt, hold the bottle up to a bright light and take a look and see how fine the sediment, if indeed there’s any, actually is. The finer it appears, the longer it will take to settle once you’ve returned the bottle to any upright position. While half an hour may do for a coarse sediment, a finer deposit may take a couple of hours. When you’re ready to decant, carefully open the bottle so as not to disturb the sediment at its base. Then pour in a smooth, gradual manner, and keep a very close eye on the wine entering the carafe or decanter, for you obviously don’t want to tip all the gunk back into the wine at this delicate stage. Only stop pouring when the sediment starts to enter the decanter. A candle or small torch placed underneath the neck of the bottle can remove the risk from the situation. Decanting is the only real way you can ensure that a wine will breathe properly. As we mention in the Five Red Wine Myths, it’s simply asking too much for the requisite gas exchange to occur through the neck of an opened bottle. But some wines certainly require more exposure to the air than others. A simple rule of thumb is that full-bodied red wines need longer than more delicate wines. Furthermore, younger wines tend to need longer than old. If, for example, a short period of breathing might be considered to be twenty minutes, and a long time about four hours, then I’d give a robust young McLaren Vale shiraz the full four hours. But I’d give a twenty year-old Coonawarra shiraz, a much older and more delicate wine, about twenty minutes. Sure, it might actually need more, buy you need to show old wines more respect, since some may actually deteriorate fairly quickly once they’re opened and you don’t want to take that sort of a risk. At the end of the day, a few twirls of the glass can give further aeration to any wine which isn’t sufficiently well breathed by the time it’s poured at the table, so don’t stress out. Since I’ve owned a couple of them I’ve developed a very soft spot for my Zerruti Turn Decanters. Not only are they a marvellous shape for the actual process of breathing wine, but their innate ability to appear as if they’re defying nature when left to roll about the table really has what it takes to end a boring conversation at the dinner table. Otherwise garrulous guests will abruptly start and stare transfixed as the decanter slow wheels it way around its axis, without ever actually wandering off the table (you hope). Meanwhile, since such gentle aeration would in fact be beneficial to all but the oldest and most decrepit of red wines you, the host, can congratulate yourself on selecting one of the few fantastic wine gadgets that actually does good to the inestimable product itself!
