Wine 101: When Should You Decant?

I simply decant most of my wines at home, all the reds and even some whites. There are 2 types of wines which benefit decanting:

Old wines Some bottles, mostly in the mid to high-range, need to age for a few years before showing their true potential. Those wines are generally bottled after a light filtration (or even unfiltered) from the oak barrels, in order to leave most of the components into the wines. After 5-10 years, the natural ageing process makes those miniscule fragments of grapes pulp, dead yeast cells – still tiny & invisible when bottled - get compacted together and create sediments. When planning to open an ‘old’ bottle, you should move it up a few hours before, and very slowly pour it into the decanter, in order for the sediments to stay on the bottom; Use a candle to help see when the sediments have settled in the round part of the botttle. Some bottles may have more sediments than others, so take your time. If there is indeed a large amount, you may not be able to pour all of the wine. Alternatively, you can use a sieve to filter the remaining if you don’t want to waste any.

Younger wines The ‘simpler' wines, on the cheaper side of the scale (below RM60 maybe), have been aged in stainless steel, and do not really need to be decanted. Most wines over may have spent at least a little time in oak. However, they didn’t get the chance to develop sediments yet. The act of decanting is simply to ‘wake up’ your wine from its time spent in the bottle, and to show its true flavours and potential faster. So no need to be ‘delicate’ on the pouring, and give it a good twirl to help it come back to life. Some wines may need more time to breathe: varietals with high tannins (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz), may need more time to open up, depending on the age and level of new oak barrels used. Wines using new barrels will definitely be more expensive. So young wines below RM100 can be served straight after decanting, some may need to rest & open up a bit while premium wines of about 5-10 years of ages may actually need to‘breathe’ for a few hours before being enjoyed!

So pop it up and don’t hesitate to decant! And if you think the wine has not ‘breathed’ enough, just give it some mouth to mouth!