Airing: decanted vs bottle

I realise decanting is something that is/has often (been) discussed, so please bear with me if this sounds like a broken record. A fellow wine geek friend and I have been experimenting with decanting over the last year or so, leaving some wine in the bottle (reclosed bottled) and some in the decanter (stopper fitted), for a number of hours before tasting. Generally, all/most tasters prefer the sample which was left in the bottle. To me, when there is a significant difference, the samples in the decanter almost always (if not always) seem more "diffuse" on the nose, with less precision/focus, and generally more muddied aromatics. The palate (tannins) may have softened in the decanted sample but that rarely seems worth the sacrifice on the nose for me. I realise it's still a sweeping generalisation, but this seems to be the case for almost all wines we've tried (red and white, at a variety of ages, Old World and New, and including styles for which decanting is often considered beneficial).

So, for those who have taken this decanting approach before, I'm wondering what the consensus is out there? Could this be a case of nose's preconditioned to a preference for "freshly opened" aromatics? Are there styles of wine (at particular ages) which you almost always a decanted sample of? What kind of time frames do you use for the decanted samples?

[David M. Bueker]

There was an interesting article about this issue in the most recent issue of The World of Fine Wine, and the results were basically inconclusive.

While I will decant extremely tight/young wines to attempt to get them to open up/blow off fermentative aromatics, I generally only decant at other time to ensure a clear (no sediment) wine.

While I will decant extremely tight/young wines to attempt to get them to open up/blow off fermentative aromatics, I generally only decant at other time to ensure a clear (no sediment) wine.

Pretty much my approach. I don't routinely decant, but for mature bottles that are sure to be throwing sediment, I tend to decant shortly before serving. While for young tight bottles. I decant in advance. I don't see this as sacrificing the nose, because usually nose opens up compared to not decanting. If I'm not certain whether to decant, I generally don't. Better too tight than tired.

Ben's example of decanting several hours in advance I only use for wines I know are painfully young and structured (some '96 or '01 Barolos, '96 Medocs, etc).

I decant most of the red wines that I drink for 2-4 hours before serving when time permits. We drink young wines, for the most part, and the time in the decanter seems to soften them up and enhance the complexity. I cannot think of a single case in which decanting seemed to hurt a wine. I rarely decant white wines except for white Burgs.

It takes all kinds. I've even known people who decant Champagne. I seldom decant white wines except German Rieslings to get rid of the sulphur stink, but then again when I have other kinds of white wines left over and decant into half bottles my wife and I often enjoy them more the second day, and that's the equivalent of decanting. Vintage Port gurus tend to decant their recently bottled VPs seven or eight hours or more, and I do the same. And more often than not I enjoy the last third of the glass of any kind of red wine more than the first third, which seems to me means maybe I should have decanted a little longer (and/or maybe served the wine at a higher temperature). Would I decant Champagne? Nah!

Pretty much my approach. I don't routinely decant, but for mature bottles that are sure to be throwing sediment, I tend to decant shortly before serving. While for young tight bottles. I decant in advance. I don't see this as sacrificing the nose, because usually nose opens up compared to not decanting. If I'm not certain whether to decant, I generally don't. Better too tight than tired.

Ben's example of decanting several hours in advance I only use for wines I know are painfully young and structured (some '96 or '01 Barolos, '96 Medocs, etc).

Dale, I have a supply of the 96 Produttori del Barbaresco single vineyard wines. I am wondering if it is time to start opening a few of them. When I say a supply, it isn't like case and cases, more like bottles and bottles. I have drunk up all the 97's, and they never reached the level the hype would have you think, but the 96's were pretty tough when young.

Not many replies on the poll, but it seems that the majority actually prefer the decanted version. I suppose I should qualify my "number of hours" as ranging 1-5, but it probably realistically averages around more like one or two.

I guess what I am saying is that, in cases where decanting might normally be conducted in order to "open up the aromatics" or "soften the palate", I actually find that I (and numerous fellow tasters) prefer the non-decanted sample. Of course, the non-decanted sample has still has some air contact too, just not as much as the decanted sample.

Ben,
I'm curious about your statement that you use a decanter with "stopper fitted." My decanater didn't come with a stopper and it wouldn't occur to me to use one. Isn't the whole point to expose the wine to oxygen? Am I missing something? In general though, like others, I don't decant unless I'm drinking a young wine which has been made to be aged, though I find that some "daily drinker" wines really do seem to benefit from decanting as well. For me part of the pleasure and fascination with wine, is smelling and tasting the changes a wine goes through after it's opened. This is what makes it seem so alive and so unlike distilled spirits, which stay pretty much the same forever no matter what. I just love wines that have an effervescence when you first open them, and then evolve into somthing entirely different. Even when I do decant of course, I always sample, just for the pleasure of observing what happens over the course of a few hours, though I might not want to serve it at the early stages to my guests.

I'm curious about your statement that you use a decanter with "stopper fitted." My decanater didn't come with a stopper and it wouldn't occur to me to use one. Isn't the whole point to expose the wine to oxygen? Am I missing something?

All cases expose the wine to air, but presumably different methods result in different degrees of oxygen contact which is what consequently results in the different degrees aromatic and palate changes in the samples. Using a stopper just ensures a certain equivalence between the two techniques, and I was just emphasising that: the bottle has had a limited period of air contact followed by reclosure, and the decanted sample should experience a similar period followed by closure for experimental scientific rigour. Of course, decanted samples probably get fully saturated with dissolved oxygen (DO) anyway, so arguably the stopper probably make no difference at all to DO concentrations, but it was done as a precautionaly measure to reduce any other possible influences (e.g. perhaps there's an escape of volatiles in samples left open to the air).

This is all pretty pedantic though - I'm talking about differences which may not even be organoleptically significant. Nevertheless, I've experienced that many tasters often notice a difference when served differently aired wines blind (and I am talking about when the tasters are not told the wine is even the same) so there does seem to be something to it.