Decanting

[Innkeeper]

First of all, we are not talking about a lot of wine. Most wine is (the 90% number is tossed around a lot including by me) ready to drink. If these are medium to full bodied (a good rule of thumb is those over 12.5% alcohol which is a lot of red wine) do the glug, glug, glug. If you have one of the 10% or less that need some age after purchase, then you have to guess when to open it, based on good research from the winery, retailer, here, or elsewhere. If you guessed wrong, then guess how long it needs to breathe. The same goes for a ready to open that doesn't taste quite right. For all these reasons it is best to have a wide mouth decanter such as an old Almaden Wine bottle (use the wine for cooking).