Talk-A-Vino

Decanting is an interesting subject in the wine world. The question is often asked – do we need to decant the wines? Why? When? How can we decide what wines to decant? Then there is a group which says that you never need to decant the wines – but we will leave this discussion for some later time.

During the process of decanting, the wine is poured out from the bottle into a large glass vessel, which can have various shapes (duck, sphere, a toll vase, a short vase and so on).

There are two main reasons to decant the wines. First, the decanting is done with the older wines, to avoid the sediment from going into the glass. Second, the decanting is done for the younger wines and the wines of the certain types, such as Barolo, to let them breathe, to aerate, soften up and then show the fruit. For instance, it is generally recommended to decant Barolo for at least 3 hours before it will be served, just to let the wine “open up”. It is not enough just open a bottle in advance, as very little amount of wine goes in direct contact with air – in decanter, the wine gets in the contact with air over much larger surface compare to the bottle or even the glass, thus the process of breathing becomes a lot more effective.

There are lots of articles about decanting available all over the place (here is one link in case you want to read more) , so let’s get to our question (this is the quiz, remember?).

To decant the bottle of wine you need to have a bottle of wine and a decanter, of course. Then, in the “classic” decanting, often performed in the higher end restaurants, there is one more element, one more piece used in the process of decanting, when the bottle is poured into the decanter. Can you name that element and explain why is it used?

Have fun and good luck! Have a great weekend! Cheers!