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+--- Thread: Decanting (/thread-17558.html)
- sharc - 04-02-2003
I am very much a novice when it comes to wine and have been reading in a few of the posts about the decanting process. I have a couple of questions (out of pure curiosity, I have yet to even buy a decanter for personal use).
I understand that a lot of the experienced members of this board decant their reds prior to drinking. Is this something you do across the board or are there certain types of reds where this is more effective in reaching a desired point? Will vintage or style dictate how long this process will take? If the wine is opened at the correct serving temp, what about after it has decanted? Do you sacrifice this for the process?
Lastly, I have never seen any restaurant decant their wines prior to serving it. I understand that time constraints would be the first reason to ignore this step. Is this something that serious wine buffs would ask for prior to dining or does it go largely ignored in these type of settings?
Thanks,
Chris
- wondersofwine - 04-02-2003
I'll try to answer only the restaurant part of the question because personally I don't do much decanting at home. A serious wine connoisseur (sp?) ordering an expensive wine at a restaurant might arrange with the sommelier to decant the wine ahead of time. This would require deciding ahead of time what wine will be ordered that evening and phoning in the request. I imagine that this occurs less than 1% of the time even in fine restaurants. Also, even though older vintages may be more expensive, they usually aren't decanted in advance because if they are past their peak, they may deteriorate quickly once the cork is pulled.
Probably in most cases the restaurant diner settles for letting the wine evolve in the glass during the course of dinner or perhaps requests that it be decanted when ordered, not in advance. (I also don't think most restaurants would have enough decanters to put one on every table drinking red wine).
- joeyz6 - 04-03-2003
In nicer restaurants here, I've had red wines opened right at the beginning of the meal. This works especially well if we were starting with a white wine. Then we could leave the red to aerate for a good half-hour, if not more, while drinking the white.