EZ-pour wine decanter?
November 29, 2013 7:04 PM   Subscribe

I find wide-bottomed decanters hard to pour from, especially when I'm sitting at a table. Can you recommend one that's not too heavy and can safely be used even by clumsy people?

A big neck-flare and tall containers are out, as well. Right now I aerate in a wide decanter and then pour the wine back into its bottle, but even with a funnel I can make a mess doing it. (I do consider a wine bottle adequately easy to pour from.) Under $80, please, and cheap ones are perfectly okay.
posted by wryly to Food & Drink (8 answers total)
 
Best answer: I assume you desire this decanter for functional reasons (aeration, removal of sediment), because you sometimes double-decant. Why not try a pitcher? They have spouts, which makes spilling less likely, and handles. And they're cheap.
posted by mr vino at 7:29 PM on November 29, 2013


What level of wine are we talking about here? Anything under about $20 doesn't really need decanting, and if you want to aerate it a bit a carafe is just fine.

If you're drinking extremely high-falutin' wines, especially those more than eight years old, a decanter is the proper tool for the job. Anything with a smaller base isn't going to be what you want.

I'm not clear on why you're decanting and then pouring back in the bottle? Are these leftovers at the end of the night? Again, I'm curious what level of wine we're talking about. Anything you'd recork and throw in the fridge probably doesn't strictly require decanting.
posted by Sara C. at 7:43 PM on November 29, 2013


Response by poster: I decant to aerate and remove sediment, using a fancy wide-bottomed decanter -- sometimes for several hours. Wine prices range from $18 to infinity. (Okay, the most expensive has been about $100.) Maybe it's a placebo effect, but in my experience some lower-priced big wines are better with an hour or two of air.

mr. vino, I never would have thought of a pitcher. Excellent idea.
posted by wryly at 7:59 PM on November 29, 2013


Why not use one of these, where you just tack it onto the bottle? I've never used one, so maybe google around to see if they're as effective as an hour long decant.
posted by missmary6 at 8:00 PM on November 29, 2013


Yeah, a carafe will definitely get the job done in the cases you're talking about.
posted by Sara C. at 8:04 PM on November 29, 2013


Best answer: How about a plastic iced-tea type pitcher? Decanters are heavy because glass is dense(r) than plastic.
posted by dfriedman at 8:43 PM on November 29, 2013


How about a plastic iced-tea type pitcher?

This is what I use for wine that seems a bit tight out of bottle, or has thrown a sediment.
posted by holgate at 8:51 PM on November 29, 2013


Best answer: Would a large Erlenmeyer flask work? I have some friends who are really into wine who use those for decanting.
posted by crLLC at 6:06 AM on November 30, 2013


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