At Veraison, as a matter of course, we offer to decant red wines. It simply makes them taste better. You will never make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, but “every wine deserves a chance”, my wine principle always said. He was of course referring to decanting a wine or “letting it breathe”.  It’s amazing how letting a wine breath can really make it improve.

Whether you are at a dinner party or in a restaurant, red wine sitting in a decanter always looks great. But it’s not all looks, what is actually happening while it’s in there?

The bottom line is this, fruit juice cannot be stored on the shelf & expected to last. Yet aged wine is the thing that wine drinkers love. So the wine maker adds a preservative, usually sulphur. Sadly though, sulphur tends to mask the taste of the wine. The best way to explain the effect of sulphur is to open young bottle of red wine & immediately try a mouthful.  Sulphur is the sour flavour that wants to make your face pucker up. I have a few people at Veraison who open a bottle and think “that’s exactly the same as the last bottle of red that I had.”  Sadly they think that this is just “red wine flavour”.  Of course it tastes the same, all we have here is a big glass of sulphur flavoured juice. We need to remove this preservative.

Decanting is the answer.  Sulphur is removed during the process of oxidisation. As air (in particular, oxygen) is in contact with the wine the sulphur is removed. The more surface area the wine has in contact with air, the more effective this takes place. This is exactly the reason decanters are generally bulb shaped.  Pulling the cork out of a bottle does not let it breathe adequately.

You can purchase decanters from most home-maker stores. If you do not have a decanter you may wish to “double decant” your wine. All you will need for this is a clean plastic jug. Simply pour the wine into the jug then pour it back into the bottle. You may wish to repeat this process a number of times.

This is something you can try at home. Take 2 bottles of the same red wine. Decant one wine for a time, and leave the other wine sealed. Time is important.  A young wine (younger than 2002) will generally take longer to lose a lot of the sulphur. Generally 2.5 to 3 hours.  An older wine (2002 and older) will generally be under 1 hour.  After allowing time, pour a glass from both the decanted & unopened bottle. With the sulphur removed you should be able to taste the juice which the wine maker intended.

- Andrew Smith