Wine aeration Archives - Wine Spotter

You have guests coming to your home later for dinner. The occasion to open that ten-year-old Pauillac you have been cellaring for a while has arrived. Together with the proper choice of glass and the right temperature of service, giving wine some breathing time can help it get to its best expression.

The wine might need a little wake up, after all that time in the bottle and a bit of a gentle filtering. Sediments might have deposited, which you might want to leave out of the glass not to impact the texture of the wine and the overall experience.

We have talked a bit on the essentials of why and when we need decanting and how it impacts the wine. The hands-on part comes now, as we look into how to decant red wine.

To kick off this talk, there is a question that often comes up when it comes to wine aeration…

What is the difference between Carafing and Decanting?

We won’t go into the nitty-gritty of this discussion in this post, but you might have heard both terms before apparently referring to the same thing. Well, technically, those are different procedures and with different purposes.

Carafing aims at aerating the wine, by exposing it to oxygen in a controlled fashion. While decanting also brings some aeration into the process, it aims at separating the sediments that might appear in wine overtime, especially in aged and more tannic ones.

In reality, however, the term decanting ends up being frequently used referring to general wine aeration procedures, having it a separation of sediments involved or not.

Shapes and sizes

Carafes and decanters might differ from each other in their shape, given their different purposes. As a guideline, carafes tend to be especially larger at the base, enhancing the area of contact of the wine with the air, rending more efficient the aeration process. Decanters on the other hand tend to have a narrower body and neck, with a relatively reduced area of contact between the wine and the air. The first two recipients bellow could be referred to as carafes, while the ones in the second row follow what we have as the description of a decanter.

Today we find carafes and decanters in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They can get really artsy at times, boarder lining common sense. Some of these pieces make you wonder if they are as functional as a decanter as they are as a conversation starter in a dinning table.

Jokes a part, some modern designs do create a good effect while serving at the table while making the most effective approach to fluid dynamics.

We’ll focus on the classic decanting definition and its procedure, since it’s a more complete approach (incorporates the carafing steps in itself). We are also having red wines in mind, as they are generally more in need of air after bottle time, than whites.

The decanting process

A call out about storing conditions of the wine, right before you open it: If you have taken it from an horizontal position in your cellar, it’s a good idea to let it rest vertically for a day or two. This would give time for the sediments to sit at the bottom and facilitate the decanting procedure. If there is no time for that, any couple of hours would be already helpful. Last case scenario, if there is way too much sediment, you can use a special sieve on top of the decanter.

Using a good corkscrew, remove the cork without agitating the bottle too much, not to disturb eventual sediments. Pour a little dose and give it a try. Make a mental note on the intensity and complexity of the aromas you first get. If you feel they are quite silent and the wine is not speaking too much yet, let’s start the decanting process and see how it evolves.

With a dry and clean decanter at hand, gently pour the wine in a slow, steady and uninterrupted movement (again, avoiding sediments to go back and ravel inside the bottle). Let it flow through the walls of the decanter. Towards the end, as soon as you notice that the sediments are about to pass through the neck of the bottle and into the decanter, you stop. You can use the help of a light source (generally a candle) behind the neck of the bottle to help seeing when sediments are about to pass.

For how long should you decant?

The right time to decant wine depends on a few factors which include style, region, age, storing conditions and of course, your own preference.As you see, there is a good component of subjectivity on when enough is enough.You can follow your own taste by tasting the wine from the decanter every 20 minutes to evaluate its point. It’s a good exercise to see how the wine evolves and also to understand a bit more of your own taste.If you’d like a suggestion for a starting point, below are some rough guidelines:

To decant immediately before serving:

Bordeaux, Burgundy and Côtes du Rhône over 20 years old

To decant 1-2 hours before serving:

Bordeaux, Burgundy and Côtes du Rhône 5 to 20 years old
Zinfandel
Malbec (New World)
Pinot Noir (New World)
Cabernet and Shiraz (New World)

To decant up to four hours before serving:

Bordeaux, Burgundy and Cote du Rhône less than 5 years old
Modern Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Priorat
Dão, Douro and Alentejo
Barolo, Barbaresco and Brunello

My thoughts on decanting
If you have an event starting or a group coming for a tasting, the decanting should be planned ahead of time.

However, whenever there is an opportunity, I truly appreciate letting the wine aerate slowly in the glass, or letting it sit in the opened bottle (recorked) for a couple of days.

If the wine is too old, light in body or fragile because of a not so good vintage, the structure might not have held well over time. In this case, decanting should be handled with care of even completely skipped as it might damage the wine. For example, for a 30 years old Burgundy, I would just pour into the glass and let it all happen there… inside the glass. Seeing the aromas and even the color change in the minutes that follow.That’s why I think the so called “super aeration” (e.g. putting your wine into a blender to, hypothetically, do a stronger& faster aeration) is an overkill and is aligns better with cocktail mixing than wine service.

Unless you are trying to fix something off in the wine, decanting should be gentle with the wine you are serving.

Service is an important part of wine appreciation and does impact your perception of the experience. It’s a delicate balance, as you try to highlight the nature of the wine and work of the producer, without getting in the way of the results.

“Why should I let wine breath, if it has been locked inside the bottle for a few years already? Whatever was inside it’s probably dead by now” – that’s how the conversation started at the table.

There are two procedures that would help your wine breath: decanting and aerating (also known as carafing or oxygenation). Aeration, as the name suggests, puts the wine in touch with the air (mainly oxygen), allowing a better expression of its aromatic components. Decanting, helps separating eventual sediments in the wine before serving, with some oxygenation coming along with it.

Why should I decant wine?

Certain wines, particularly the aged ones, naturally develop an amount of sediments overtime. These sediments impact the texture of the wine, which can be distracting and even unpleasant. Removing these sediments will take you to a better tasting experience.

What about aeration?

Every wine could benefit a bit from aeration. I would recommend aerating all wine, with a few exceptions and bit of care. As discussed in a previous post, a lot of details in the bottle and on the wine production methods are designed to slow down the aging process. One of them is to limit the contact with oxygen. Once the bottle is open and the wine gets in contact with an overwhelming amount oxygen, a series of chemical reactions are triggered. In older wines, for which the time has stopped for a while, this process happens much faster once the bottle is opened.

If done in the right measure, the aeration can:

Help soothing some of the aggressive tannins in young wines. Don’t expect miracles, but it can soften a bit the texture of wines where tannins are still super active.
Help brushing away off odours that occur in some wines, especially the ones with low content of sulfites. Unfortunately, if your wine is corked, aeration won’t help – actually it will make it worse.
Help bringing up the layers of aromas that might have been trapped in the wine. As the oxygen triggers some chemical reactions, it induces volatilization of some aromatic components.

Aeration is a process that needs to be handled gently and with care. If the process is too aggressive or takes longer than required, it might damage the wine. You don’t want oxygenation turning into oxidation. Often in old wines, it takes minutes for us to notice it changing aromas and even colour inside the glass.

What wines should I aerate?

Not all wines have sediments, which would require some decanting. Nevertheless, most of the wines would benefit from some aeration. There is a component of personal preference to it. Experiment and have fun in the process. Despite this grey zone in the discussion about what wines should be aerated, much lead by personal preferences, there are some general guidelines worth mentioning.

Aerating Red Wines

To simplify, if we think about how much aeration a given varietal needs, based on its age, we could probably draw something like a bell curve.

Young wines need little aeration since they are still young and little stimulation is needed to have the aromas coming out. Aeration in young wines tends to help most on (slightly) soothing the more aggressive tannins. Again, it won’t do miracles but you should see a difference if you let a young Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon rest for an hour or so.

Mid aged wines are the ones that would benefit the most when it comes to bringing up dormant flavours. The time in the bottle can mask the aromas, especially some of the tertiary ones that you have been patiently waiting for.

Old wines need decanting because of possible sediment, but little aeration. We need extra care with them, as the wine structure might have become fragile over the years. In this case it is suggested to have the wine decanted just before serving.

Aerating White Wines

In general, white wines won’t benefit as much from aeration as the average red wine. Those that could possibly get a boost are the ones that got some aging (e.g. German Riesling) or heavier bodied ones that had some time in Oak (e.g. Californian Chardonnay) or that have a more complex aromatic structure you would like to bring up (e.g. Alsatian Gewürztraminer). If aerating, I would suggest to chill down the decanter, to a temperature that is 1-2 degrees lower than the one of the bottle, so that you don’t warm up the wine in the process.

Aerating Sparkling Wines

I am not a fan of oxygenating sparkling wines. It depends on the wine, and I believe those should be treated case by case. However, if you DO happen to have a nice vintage champagne, decanting can add an interesting edge to your experience (together with the use of a proper glass, please not a flute!).

A key thing is to have the decanter chilled down before aerating (as mentioned above for whites). Keep it in the fridge for a while so that it gets cold and you don’t warm up the champagne during the process. The second thing to keep in mind is to work gently and continuously when pouring the champagne. Gently let the champagne flow through the walls of the decanter and avoid having the champagne hitting the bottom at once. This way you avoid breaking the bubbles and having the champagne losing perlage once served in the glass. Don’t let it sit for too long. Keep the decanter covered and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. That should wake the vintage up a bit without stressing it out. Allowing you to enjoy the depth that a more complex sparkling deserves.

My thoughts on aeration

Aeration should be a process to gently wake up the wine and help it to rise and shine in the glass. It might have been sleeping for a long time in bottle, let’s be careful with the old ones. The timing on the process requires a bit of experience, probing and sensibility. If oxygenation is too much for the wine, it will let some of the aromas fade, and we’ll end up missing some of the stories that the wine would like to tell us.

Open the bottle, pour a sip in your glass and taste it. If you can’t feel the main notes (fruity, earthy, herbal…), or if it’s young and too tannic or if you spotted some off odours, let it sit for a bit in the decanter. Wait, try it again. Repeat. The right point is the one that matches with your preferences, expectations or curiosity (ok, also patience).

Personally, I avoid using a decanter whenever I can. If the time is short and you have a table of guests waiting, there are not many ways to scape and a decanter will be a good friend supporting you. However, whenever possible, I just open the bottle, serve the wine in the glass and enjoy it as it opens, the aromas develop and get wider in the glass. While the oxygenation happens slowly in the bottle, once opened, it allows you to taste each stage of wine waking up.

Pretty much like having the wine catching up with time, but that’s a show that you get a first seat to watch, interacting with it right there, in your glass.

Santé!

Tag: Wine aeration

Essentials on how to decant red wine