Monday, September 24 2007
Decan-do, or Decant?
Bronze oinochoe (wine jug), ca. 360 BCE
photo: McClung Museum
Decanting Theory and Practice One: Sediment
Virtually all modern table wine is intended for more-or-less immediate consumption, and will never have the chance to throw any sort of haze or sediment. Vintage Port, however, almost always throws a 'crust' in the bottle. This is because it's bottled very early in its evolution. As many Vintage Ports need 10 or even 20 years before they're ready to drink, this means that they will continue to evolve not just in flavour and aroma in the bottle, but also in appearance, dropping a thick layer of tartrate crystals, colour compounds and polymerised phenolics (tannins, mostly). If you just poured the Port directly from the bottle, you'd wind up with a pretty hefty layer of goo in the last three or four glasses. In this case, decanting helps present a wine in its best light.
Decanting to separate the wine from sediment is done very carefully. First, the bottle is brought up from the cellar and stood upright for 24 hours, to allow all the sediment to settle. Next, a scrupulously clean decanter is readied, and the Port is very slowly and gently poured into it. This can take as long as three or four minutes. The goal is to disturb as little sediment as possible. Towards the end of the bottle, the sediment will begin to flow down towards the neck. However, Port bottles have a strong drop-shoulder, and by keeping watch, you can stop pouring as soon as the sediment begins to flow towards the neck.
There are some gadgets that are designed to help with the process. The traditional candle held behind the neck of the bottle to help illuminate the flow of sediment has been replaced mostly by strong flashlights, but decanting cradles are still around. This gadget, looking like a cross between a dismembered music-box and a hand-driven apple-corer uses a mechanism to tilt the bottle with glacial slowness, to prevent any sudden tipping that could disturb the sediment. They're not cheap, and most of the ones around are antiques.
Should you decant your Port before serving? If you're the kind of person who collects vintage Port, you already have your own opinion on that. If you're like most of us, making and enjoying Ruby and Tawny-style Ports from kits or home fruit, it's probably not going to be necessary–but it does look fancy, and won't hurt a strongly-flavoured, high-alcohol Port in the least.
Decanting Theory and Practice Two: Breathing
The most wide-spread reason for decanting is aeration, giving the wine a chance to soak up some oxygen, to 'open up' and express its aromas. On the surface, this sounds pretty good: the wine has been cooped up in the bottle, so letting it out to stretch its legs would make sense, right?
Well, according to some oenologists, wrong. According to these experts, post-fermentation oxygen exposure is virtually always detrimental, and the greater the exposure the more damage it does, driving off delicate aromatics and numbing the wines delicate bouquet. Only heavily sedimented wines should be decanted, they say, and then only at the very last minute before they're served.
Indeed, for very old wines this is true. I was at a wine tasting in the early 90's where a very rare bottle of Argentinean Cabernet Sauvignon from the 1950's was poured. It was amazing at first, a rare and delicate wine with cedar, hints of blackcurrant, dusty cigar box, even rose petals lurking around. As I sniffed and swirled it over the course of four or five minutes the aromas got lighter and thinner until suddenly poof! It smelled of nothing except lightly vinegared water. It was almost like seeing a vampire getting trapped in the sunlight; it decayed away to nothing so rapidly. Decanting this wine would have doomed it to losing its character before the drinkers ever saw it.
Keep in mind, however, that most oenologists have never made a kit wine (hey, it's their loss–I'm here when they want to try). If there's one thing I've learned in the last 15 years of working in the kit industry, it's that people tend to drink their kit wines just slightly before they're actually ready to drink. Not that this is such a terrible thing–some wines taste just fine while they're fresh and snappy with youth, and others, like the Mist-type fruit and wine beverages are meant to be drunk the day of bottling. However, the bigger, oak-aged whites and many of the reds really benefit from a year of age in the bottle, resting quietly and gaining strength for their unveiling. For these underage wines a little airing not only doesn't detract from them, it also accomplishes the following:
- Separates it from any sediment (definitely an 'oops' in young kit wine, but if you decant it, no one will ever know!)
- If the wine has a small amount of trapped carbon dioxide (CO2) and is slightly 'fizzy', decanting can drive this off, making the wine smoother. Dissolved CO2 in solution forms carbonic acid, giving the wine a sharp 'bite'.
- If the wine has an appreciable aroma of sulphite, decanting can oxidise it and drive it off. Most kit wines have a carefully measured amount included, but if you think you can detect it, decanting will disperse the 'burnt match' character.
- Wines that are heavily oaked will lose some of the 'Chateau Plywood' character and show more of their fruit quality.
- Highly tannic red wines will lose some of their harsher bite, and present a fruitier, more approachable flavour and aroma.
Indeed, with kit wines the improvement made by decanting the young ones can be quite dramatic. They go from closed, low aroma wines with a character that some people interpret as 'that kit taste' to fully open, approachable wines with a pleasant aroma, and only the characters associated with regular everyday wine.
Is Decanting for You?
So which kits should be decanted? Pretty much only the Chardonnay-based kits that have been oaked and the darker, heavier reds. Decanting an delicate Sauvignon Blanc or a Beaujolais-style won't accomplish much (unless you've got a spiffy-looking decanter you're dying to show off) but a big California Cabernet Sauvignon, a rich Australian Chardonnay or an Italian Amarone-style will open up and show itself much better with just a little airing out.
If you're still not sure about decanting, there's an easy test you can do. Buy (or borrow) an inexpensive decanter. About half an hour before you want to serve your kit wine, decant one bottle and leave it out. Right at service open a second bottle from the same batch. Quickly make sure that neither bottle is corked or otherwise 'off', and then have your guests or winemaking pals try a sample of each. You might be surprised at just how much of a difference this will make to your wines, and how easily you and your friends will be able to perceive it.
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