Wine Decanting 101

It’s safe to say that we can all agree that wine decanters are pretty. However, they’re also practical and will help improve your wine drinking experience. Properly decanting your wine will make a huge difference in the taste and texture. This is especially true if you have an older wine with a lot of sediment. The process of decanting aerates the wine and opens it up more fully.

The right wine decanter should display the contents of the wine well. Therefore, it should be made of clear glass. It’s important to be able to assess the quality of the wine without having to look through anything distracting.

When decanting something more full bodied like a Syrah it’s often recommended that you let the wine decant for approximately two hours. However, if you’re a little impatient you can decant multiple times between two decanters to increase the amount of air. You can also swirl the decanter around.

It’s good to decant wines young and old! Decanting a young wine will soften any harsh tannins, while decanting older wines will remove sediment. It can also help to decant cheap bottles of wine, because aerating the wine can improve the overall flavour profile.

Taking care of your wine decanter properly is also important. Make sure that you don’t use detergent, because it will affect the taste of your wine. Instead try using decanter cleaning balls with a little bit of water to get rid of any residue.

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Make sure to check out Rosehill Wine Cellars for all of your wine storage and wine drinking needs!