Decanting

[hovis]

Hi It`s me again. I am the only person in my house who drinks red wine,(lucky for me you might say):-).
If I wanted to decant a bottle of red wine,but not drink the whole bottle on the day it was decanted. Would the flavour of the wine impair if it stayed in the decanter for a day or two.?

[mrdutton]

At least one person here has suggested that any remaining wine be placed in a small decanter just large enough to hold the remaining wine.

Use a decanter that has a good ground glass stopper. Fill the decanter to about the top, so when you insert the stopper some of the wine is displaced.

This keeps all air away from the wine. You can then store the wine in the refrigerator for a couple of days without it degrading significantly.

I am stealing the thunder from the person who made this suggestion at least a year or so ago.

That person is known as Innkeeper here on the Wine Board. He is a moderator for the wine board and pretty helpful around these parts. As an added plus he has these killer recipes.

[hovis]

Many thank`s Mrdutton, advice taken.:-)

[Drew]

I'd also add that it depends on the wine. Some wines I've had recently have shown better on day 2 and 3. You can always double decant which is decant into a large mouth vessel, consume 1/2 let's say, and pour the remaining wine back into the bottle and re-cork. The only problem is you don't know which wines will show favorably with this technique unless you experiment.

Drew

[Time4Wine]

Hovis, I am the only wine drinker in my home also. When I open a new bottle I pour what I want to drink in the decanter and I use the Vacu Vin to pump the air out of the bottle for storage. However you will need to drink the rest within 48 hrs. according to my experience.

[hovis]

Many thank`s for your replies. will put some of them to practice. :-)

[stevebody]

I'd throw in a couple of other suggestions, too, one of which may sound screwy but works well:

1. There is a bottle of inert gas that I sell at Esquin which, for the life of me, I can't recall the name of this minute (maybe WineGuard?). This stuff is heavier than air and covers the surface of the wine effectively, sealing off the oxidation that fades the juice. It feels empty when you get it but actually has about 100 applications inside. It takes a bit of practice to use it but it does what it claims to do - preserve wine...Damn, WinePreserve is the name, I think.

2. Put the tightly sealed and gassed (or even ungassed) decanter in the fridge. Wine, like most other foods, keeps better under refrigeration. Yes, I'm talking Red, here. Not icy cold but general 40-45 degrees fridge temps. Just remember to take it out of the fridge two hours or so before you want to drink it, to let it come gently back to room temp. Under any circumstances, don't take a week to finish the wine. Repeated exposure to air will wilt any wine, no matter what you do. At two smal glasses a night, you'll finish it in three days or so, anyway.

There is a current trend toward decanting inexpensive wines and I second that heartily. Air is wine's best friend, as well as its worst enemy. In the short run, though, it opens up the wine and lets it reveal all its flavors.

Hope these help!

[Kcwhippet]

The cans of inert gases (argon, nitrogen and CO2) we sell at Sudbury Wine Merchant are called Private Preserve. Works extremely well - the pumps don't work at all.

[hovis]

Many thank`s for all your replies, you have given me a few idea`s to try. I must admit I opened a bottle of Merlot last week, drank 2 glasses that evening, put one of those temporary stoppers on the bottle, drank the remainder the next evening and to my surprise
the wine tasted much smoother on the palate.
(Not into wine terminolgy yet, smoother on the palate will have to suffice) :-)