decantering

[MoodSwinger]

Hi all, new here and new to wine. What exactly is decantering? TIA. Peace and blessings.

[winoweenie]

Hi MS and welcome to the board. Decanting is pouring the wine from the bottle into a decanter. This does two things...For young wines it introduces oxygen into the wine which helps soften the tannins and in older bottles allows the sediment that has collected on the side of the bottle to be left in the bottle and only clear wine in the decanter. WW

[Innkeeper]

Hi Moody, and welcome to the Wine Board. Decanting is pouring a bottle of wine into another vessel, commonly called a decanter. It is done basically for two reasons. The first is aerate a young red wine. This is done with gusto (we call it the glug glug method). The purpose is to get the normal enemy of wine, oxygen, into the wine to fully expose it to you and the world; and/or to hasten the approachability of the wine. The second reason is to very carefully separate an aged out wine from its sediment. It is also possible that a younger wine with throw some noxious sediment. You do this very slowly and attentively so you catch the sediment it the area below the neck of the bottle and get clear liquid into the decanter. There is such a thing as a decanting funnel that makes this process a little easier.

[MoodSwinger]

Ohhh I seeeee! Thanks so much, cleared that up for me. :-) Peace and Blessings.