Pour me a drink...

January 2, 2006 7:52 PM

Anyone know anything about decanting? Wine, liquor, etc.

I recently bought three beautiful crystal decanters at auction (my first - interesting experience). They are nice to look at, and are on display in the china cabinet, but what are the particulars on decanting? From what little I've read (via google), most wines nowadays don't need to be decanted - except maybe port. But I like the idea of presenting wine nicely. And what about liquor? We know the cliche scene; rich man in his study pours himself a glass of something (whiskey? scotch?) from the fancy decanter. Is this for real? How long do various potables "last" in a decanter - days? Weeks? Longer? And what about cleaning them? Rinse a lot? Soap and water? Alcohol? No, really...

posted by ObscureReferenceMan to food & drink (14 comments total)

I don't know what you're reading, but decant all red wine. It never hurts, look at it that way. If you don't finish the bottle, use a funnel to pour it back into the bottle, and get one of those $20 (if that) vacuum pump sealers. Put it in the fridge, and it'll last another 2-3 days. Really. Go on, it's OK.

Don't decant white.

True oenophiles will say to never use soap on your wine glass (incl. decanters) if you can avoid it. I say "meh" and rinse thoroughly.

Decanters for liquors are purely for decoration.
posted by mkultra at 8:09 PM on January 2, 2006

There are two practical reasons to decant wine. One is to let it breathe, and pretty much all young red wine benefits greatly from being decanted 20 minutes before drinking it. The other reason is if you have an unfiltered wine and want to not bring the sludge to the table.

All that being said, decanting wine is also nice because it scan be pretty. So decant away! Almost all red wine can be decanted. If you have a very old and delicate red, say a 30+ year old burgundy, decanting it could destroy it.

People store hard liquor in decanters for service. The purpose here is purely aesthetic. Nothing wrong with that!

The key to cleaning a decanter is to never let it dry dirty. As soon as you're done with it fill it with water.
posted by Nelson at 8:17 PM on January 2, 2006

Off-topically, don't get a $20 vacuum pump. It won't really pull much of a vacuum, and your wine will go bad nearly as fast as in an open bottle.

Instead, buy a $4 bottle - smaller than a bottle of wine - with an airtight seal (e.g. the Grolsch flip-top kind). Take your leftover wine and pour it into the smaller bottle, filling it to the top, so there's no air in there. Seal.
posted by rxrfrx at 8:18 PM on January 2, 2006

People store hard liquor in decanters for service. The purpose here is purely aesthetic. Nothing wrong with that!

Provided it's not lead crystal. If it is, then decanting while serving is fine, but long-term storage is a bad idea because of, well, lead.
posted by mendel at 8:58 PM on January 2, 2006

I decant pretty much everything except Beaujolais Neauvous.
posted by oddman at 9:17 PM on January 2, 2006

Nouveau = new (young)
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:33 PM on January 2, 2006

On the cleaning point: if you have a dirty decanter that's gone all crusty, try using warm water, washing up liquid and some grains of rice, and swill them around for a while. The rice is abrasive enough to take off the dirt, without scratching the glass.
posted by greycap at 12:07 AM on January 3, 2006

Take your leftover wine

Does not compute!
posted by hardcode at 5:17 AM on January 3, 2006

If they are crystal decanters like the one you describe from the archetypal movie scene, they are probably intended for spirits and not wine. Wine decanters tend to be designed in shapes that promote the aeration of the wine.

You might choose to put brandy, cognac, etc. in your decanters. Not being a drinker of whiskeys, I can't say if they're meant to be kept that way or not.

Don't store wine in a decanter. As the advice above indicates, you decant to aerate, then return anything left to the bottle.
posted by briank at 5:45 AM on January 3, 2006

I don't know what you're reading, but decant all red wine.

I don't know what you're reading, but that's nonsense. Very few wines need to be decanted, and those are old, expensive Bordeaux that the poster is unlikely to have. It's enjoyable to serve things from decanters, but the value is esthetic, not practical. (Except in the case of port, but even then only if it's vintage port that has deposited sediment in the bottle.)
posted by languagehat at 6:11 AM on January 3, 2006

Hey, don't take my word for it- decant 1/2 your next bottle of red. See whether it tastes better for you than straight from the bottle.
posted by mkultra at 7:44 AM on January 3, 2006

I live by the "If you don't want it, don't open it" rule, so storing away extra wine isn't an option, really. If I wake up after a party and find open bottles, they all go in the vinegar bottle.

Julia Child mentions that it is useless to decant anything that doesn't throw sediment. Rosees and whites don't throw their sediment, so don't do it with them.
posted by jon_kill at 8:29 AM on January 3, 2006

Robert Parker, the wine critic advises that for most wine the only advantage of decanting is that it takes some time ... which allows the red wine to reach room temperature.

The right temperature will affect taste far more than any amount of 'aeration'
posted by Lanark at 9:27 AM on January 3, 2006

I work in a wine shop, and sell decanters. I usually tell people there are three main reasons to decant wine: sediment, breathing, and presentation.

If the bottle has has some cellaring time, or if the wine's not been fined, it may have a sediment. Decanting will help you separate wine wine from gunk, but if you can't be bothered decanting, just stand the bottle upright a couple of days before serving and pour carefully. This will work fine in most cases, but if the wine is old and valuable, you may want to go the decanter.

Young tannic reds in particular may benefit from decanting: allowing the wine to breathe will help the wine soften and open up a little before serving. Ideally, decanters are shaped to allow the greatest possible surface area for the wine. You don't really need a decanter for this, though; a jug will do.

And finally, lots of people think decanters look nice. I don't see the point, myself, but that's just aesthetic taste.

As for the vacuum pumps, we sell those too. I think they work well in terms of extending your open bottle's lifespan (we gas our tasting bottles with nitrogen these days, but we used to use the vacuum stoppers) but you probably do suck some volatiles out along with the air, so they're not a perfect solution.
posted by hot soup girl at 5:38 PM on January 3, 2006