Is decanting ever a bad idea?

[Innkeeper]

The authors of "Wine For Dummies" have a different definition of double decanting than KC. They say it is used when decanting for aeration purposes, whereby you pour the wine from decanter to another, and perhaps even back again to fully aerate the wine.

I don't know who is correct or maybe both. We decant all but the lightest red wines such as Beaujolais Nouveau. Most reds meant to be consumed young benefit from at least some aeration.

Older or aged out reds need to be decanted very carefully. We use a decanting funnel to make this process a little easier. If the sediment is very fine, even this doesn't help. Sometimes we will run the last fifth or sixth end of the bottle through an unbleached coffee filter. Once you get these wines into a decanter, drink it up right away; because a aged out red will fade fast.