Oxidation in Wine

Here is an interesting talk by Professor Andrew Waterhouse of UC Davis on Effect of Wine Oxidation on Flavor Evolution - A Review. It includes some useful comments on what might happen during decanting.

Wine decanting: Is it all hot air?

In today’s LA Times W. Blake Gray has written about decanting. There are some very flowery comments, especially from Piero Selvaggio, owner of Valentino Restaurant Group. And some clearly single minded comments such as "Almost every wine in the world does benefit from aeration. The only exceptions are wines we rarely drink -- older, expensive Burgundies that could collapse with too much air," from Karen MacNeil, faculty chair of the wine department at the Culinary Institute of America's Greystone campus.

But then the piece ends with this. Susan Rodriguez, a research fellow at Cal State Fresno, recently did a blind tasting experiment and discovered that her panel could not tell the difference between a wine that had been decanted for two hours and the same wine right out of the bottle.

"The people who set it up were flabbergasted," Rodriguez says. "They were sure they could taste a difference."

That has been the experience here at SHIRAZ, just search the site under “decanting”

Decanting - The Answer for Hidden Terroir!

In a recent piece over on Appellation America Dan Berger wrote the following

“one of the key factors in all great wine - evidence of the terroir - is easily obliterated early in a wine’s life, and the only way to access it is to decant the wine and allow air to work its magic.”

OK Dan, I’ll bite. Before you arrived at this enlightened moment of wine truth just how many wines did you find that revealed their terroir following decanting? And by that I mean performing a triangulation test with one bottle decanted for a few hours compared to a freshly opened bottle?

I have no doubt that Berger is correct in saying that some wines can exhibit sulfur (and other) odors soon after a cork is pulled or a screwcap ceremoniously removed in the Helm manner. And these odors can mask the depth and complexity of the wine. But for exposure to air to reveal hidden terroir is bunkum. Just like any other aspect of wine lore aeration produces effects that can be entirely subjective. If you don’t believe me get a couple of bottles of one wine and a few friends together and do your own triangulation test.

What is a triangulation test? In essence it is a test to see if a taster can distinguish between two wines (or as I have used in decanting experiments here on SHIRAZ - decanted versus non-decanted wine). Two glasses receive one wine and a third the other wine. It is the task of the taster to identify which glasses contain which wine. And because two glasses have the same wine it shouldn’t be all that hard, right Dan!

Able Grape - a wine knowledge search engine

The ever expanding world of cyberspace is truly a spider’s web. Probe it for items on Shiraz and you are just as likely to be stuck with hits for Shiraz, Iran as you are for the grape of the same name. If you want an example of this just click on the Google SHIRAZ NEWS tab to the right of this page. Wouldn’t it be handy if there was a search engine restricted to wine related material? Well there is, or at least there is a site that is in Beta that proclaims to be a wine search engine for learning and research. Called Able Grape it came about through a need to have up-to-date, trustworthy wine information from the web that would help in passing WSET exams. Still a work in progress, Able Grape consists of 32,000 sites and some 10 million pages. That’s serious wine content.

Just how friendly and effective is Able Grape? When I first tried to search its contents I was led to a page with the following -

You are getting this message because your browser is not a supported configuration. At present, Able Grape supports:
• Safari 2.0/3.0 (best experience; Mac)
• Firefox 2 (best experience; Mac/PC)
• Internet Explorer 7.0 (good experience; PC)
Javascript must also be enabled in your browser. We truly apologize for the inconvenience. As we grow, we hope to support additional browsers more gracefully.

After updating to Version 7 of IE I was off and running. The search mechanism is still a little clunky, which is why there is a help page. I found the best approach, at present, is to type in your search word(s) and then refine the search using the TOPIC and REGION filters on the left of the page. My first attempt was with decanting Shiraz, which brought up 1,779 hits. That is a lot, but its way less than the 80,000 hits on a Google search. Refining by limiting my search to South Pacific reduced the number to 241. Then I got serious and limited myself to Australia (215 hits; I guess they don’t do a lot of decanting in New Zealand – must be all the Sauvignon Blanc), then South Australia (72 hits), and then Barossa Zone for 25 hits. Most of the hits were for Jacob’s Creek Centenary Hill Shiraz. But the link I found the most satisfying was the very first hit on my initial search. It was The Frugal Oenophile’s post on The Great Decanting Debate. I particularly liked the conclusion -

So what do we make of all this? First, decanting is not a fool-proof solution to anything except the elimination of sediment. Also, aeration appears to negatively affect the nose of the wine, making the wine dumb. Aeration will not necessarily soften tannins or make the wine rounder either. Although a two-hour rest may appeal to some people, no aeration period seems to be ideal; anything from 0 to 24 hours appears to pass muster.

This experiment involved one wine, from one maker, from one region, from one vintage, decanted according to one person's idea of how it should be done. At every turn I tried to eliminate variables, and yet the results were far from conclusive. My tasters managed to come up with a definitive answer. After a brief discussion (while I was out of the room), they decided: There is no answer. Not what I was hoping for.

So it would seem that decanting is not a given. There are no clear-cut reasons for doing it, but apparently no real reason not to. I will continue to use my decanter for cut flowers, as I've proven to myself that I don't like what decanting does to wine, unless I hit some sediment, of course.

I finally know what to do with the decanters I have!

Decanting Marius

Here at Shiraz there is not a big belief in decanting wine to allow the wine to open-up. Long personal experience has shown me that there are few wines that show real improvement with decanting. In fact, for me decanting is more likely to detract from the appeal of a wine. That said, it is clear that the world of wine is fraught with danger when it comes to implying that personal tasting experiences are applicable to all palates. However this does not mean that dogma does not rule wine appreciation in not so subtle ways. One of the examples of wine dogma is that decanting allows young red wines to throw off the excesses of youth and soften into something more approachable. And one of the wine styles that is often cited as an example is Australian Shiraz. Many believe that these big, bold, fruit laden wines need a little time out in the open air in order to lose some of their larrikin image. But is that something that can be generalized?

Just before my trip to Australia in December last year I asked the members of an online wine forum in Australia to list Australian red wines that they thought would benefit from decanting. I received some excellent suggestions but the most intriguing proposal came from Roger Pike of Marius Wines of McLaren Vale in South Australia. Intriguing because Roger stated that “my wines certainly open up and gain complexity with a couple of hours of air. They are probably a good example of what you are looking for.” After a little discussion an order was sent out for a couple of bottles of the Marius 2005 Symphony Shiraz (15% alcohol) and the 2005 Simpatico Shiraz (14.5% alcohol). These single vineyard wines arrived a few days after I had made my way to central western New South Wales, to my birthplace and more recently home to a growing wine industry.

The plan was to assess one of the wines at a wine tasting that had been arranged by Chris Davis who had gathered together a group of wine friends to blind taste a number of the best Australian Shiraz and Shiraz blends. An ideal opportunity to test if decanting improves young Aussie Shiraz. The location for the tasting was Carlton House, a beautiful old home built around 1873 that is used by the Orana Education & Training Cooperative Ltd (OEC) as a function centre available for community and business events including weddings, parties, seminars and conferences. And now wine tastings! Like most planned wine events a number of the invited guests never materialized and those that did attend were never all together at the same time. On the bright side this meant that there was a whole lot more outstanding wine for those of us who did make it, but on the other hand there were only three of us present when it came time to taste the decanted wine, and one of us (me) had to pour the wines so the tasting could be blinded.

The wine was the 2005 Symphony Shiraz and the two tasters were Chris and another of the OEC board members with the original name of Mike. Each was given two glasses, one with decanted (2 hours) wine and another with wine from a freshly opened bottle. After tasting the wines they were both asked to identify which wine they thought had been decanted. They both picked different glasses; Chris arguing that his choice had to be correct because the wine was softer, while Mike argued that he was correct because the wine was fresher. When I pointed out that Chris was indeed correct Mike was heard to utter “Well, I’m gobsmacked”. Its probably important to point out that gobsmacked is a British slang term meaning more than just surprised; it’s used for something that leaves you speechless, or otherwise stops you dead in your tracks. Having your perceptions of the value of decanting so rudely dashed can do that.

What was my opinion of the two glasses of 2005 Symphony Shiraz? Well, as I’ve said, I didn’t taste the glasses blinded but the difference was very clear. The decanted wine was more closed while the wine from the bottle was richer and riper with better carry of flavors onto the palate and more length to the finish.

Fast forward four days to a dinner at Chris’ home and another comparison of decanted and undecanted wine. This time it was the 2005 Simpatico Shiraz that had been decanted for 3 hours. We had three tasters willing to accept the challenge of identifying the decanted wine, myself, Chris and, well, let’s just call him Doc! To me the difference between the two glasses was quite evident and I called the decanted wine correctly, as did Chris and Doc. My impression was that the decanted wine was less expressive and shorter on the finish. But Chris preferred the decanted wine arguing, as he did for the 2005 Symphony, that the decanted Simpatico was softer and better than wine from the freshly opened bottle. Judging by his consumption Doc also preferred the decanted wine.

Have we solved the riddle of the value of decanting young reds? Clearly not. My palate preference for freshly poured wine is old news; for me decanting improves the palate appeal of very few wines. What is clear is that these two outstanding Marius wines are affected by decanting. The question is whether you prefer them fresh out of the bottle or decanted? If you really do want to know how your palate responds to decanted wine I’d recommend that you buy two bottles of either (or both) of the Marius wines and do a comparison between decanted and freshly poured.

The Art of Decanting

As a prelude to a summary of the results of The Great Decanting Experiment I thought it might be prudent to review the only book I can find that, at least according to it’s title, is devoted to the decanting of wine.

Written by Sandra Jordan, of Jordan Vineyard and Winery, The Art of Decanting: Bringing wine to life is an extremely well presented volume. Chapters cover everything from the historical aspects of wine storage, to corkscrews, wine glasses, wine appreciation, and even a menu for a dinner to show off your ability to decant your favorite wines. The images, although a little too close to commercial photography, are nonetheless eye catching. I found myself impatiently reading the text just to get to the next page to see what other images of wine glasses, corkscrews and additional accoutrements of wine tasting might be found there. Its no coincidence that the title includes the word art, nor is it coincidence that a number of the photographs are less than subtle in their advertising of Jordan wines.

Yes, this is one of those books that you do read for the pictures! And that is a problem because there is precious little examination of why wines should be decanted and what happens when wines are decanted. There is simply no support provided for dogmatic statements such as “ In truth, the beneficial influence of air upon young reds may be the closest thing to certainty in the world of decanting. In all other matters – particularly in those pertaining to treasured library wines – the experts continue to engage in fierce debate and friendly disagreement.” Or “ For a young wine(a red one to five years old), however, consider decanting one to three hours before your dinner to allow more oxygen to reach the wine, unleash the flavors, and smooth out the texture. In short, some patience, and a good decanter can improve the flavor and bouquet of a rough young red immeasurably.”

But is all this exposure to air a good thing? The wonders that oxygen will bring to a young wine are seemingly fraught with danger for we are told that in decanting a wine it should not be allowed to splash into the decanter lest it “tire”. And please don’t “shake the decanter to more fully aerate the wine – a controversial move, to put it mildly” as Hugh Johnson, if he is present, is likely to faint.

No, this is not a book for those looking for knowledge on the benefits (or otherwise) that aeration will bring to wine. It is chock full of the art of decanting, thou.

The Art of Decanting: Bringing Wine to Life (Hardcover) by Sandra Jordan with Lindsey Lee Johnson. 132 pages, Publisher: Chronicle Books (Oct. 1, 2006). $12.71USD.

The Great Decanting Experiment – Wine #13

For the last wine in this decanting series we head back to Burgundy and the Mercurey Appellation. And this time it’s a Faiveley. That’s right, the last wine will be the most severe test of the idea that aeration softens tannins because this wine, like all good Faiveleys, has astringency in spades. Oh, excuse me. Its more robust than most. Let’s see if a little air will bring it down to earth!

Wine #13: 2003 Faiveley Mercurey Clos des Myglands Premier Cru, Burgundy, France ($21.00USD, 375ml), 13% alcohol.
One bottle was splash decanted and the other left unopen; both in the cellar at 56 degrees F. After two and a half hours the second bottle was opened and the two wines poured randomly into three marked opaque glasses while I was out of the room.

Glass A: Muted notes of strawberry and cherry over toasted oak and anise. Very soft and supple entry that is overrun by gripping tannins. Nicely structured with good clean acidity.

Glass B: Is there wine in this glass? Nothing except a faint whiff of toffee. Same palate as glass A ; soft and supple on entry but the astringency is overpowering.

Glass C: As for glass B, very, very closed. Just a little anise and oak. Again a palate overpowered by astringency.

My opinion: A and C are from the bottle and B the decanter.

Reality: A is from the bottle and B and C are from the decanter.

Conclusion: My first assessment of the glasses was that A was from the bottle. Why didn’t I stick with that? Well, the aromas in this wine (like a lot of red Burgundy that I have tasted) are very subtle and I knew that I should spend time searching for them. In the end it was a somewhat futile exercise as the astringency of a young Faiveley batters the palate into resignation. But I will say one thing. Two hours of air seemed to make this wine more astringent, if that is possible!

Just to see what a long exposure to air might do I left one bottle about a quarter full of wine and the other was filled with the remaining wine and corked. After 24 hours the wine in the full bottle was still quite fresh and had developed a note of mushrooms while wine from the other bottle was quite oxidized and almost undrinkable.

Score: Wines tested 13, Decanters 1, Non-decanters 4.

The Great Decanting Experiment – Wine #12

For our twelfth wine we are finally headed to Bordeaux. Château Ducru-Beaucaillou is in the Saint-Julien appellation; one of the four major appellations of the Médoc region. On the left bank of the Garonne estuary, Château Ducru-Beaucaillou is one of the five second growth (Deuxièmes Crus) vineyards of St-Julien. The chief feature of the vineyard are the pebbles or "cailloux" which contribute to the greatness of many Medoc wines. This gravel, about 5 meters deep, is on a calcareous base of about the same thickness. The vineyards are planted in 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot.

Is this a wine that needs decanting? The Chateau recommends that a ten year old wine should be decanted two hours before serving, 20 year old decanted 1 hour and a 40 year old wine decant at the time of serving. Our wine is 5 years old so it will get at least 2 hours.

Wine #12: 2002 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou (St Julien) ($37.00USD, 375ml), 13% alcohol.
One bottle was splash decanted and the other left unopen; both in the cellar at 56 degrees F. After two and a half hours the second bottle was opened and the two wines poured randomly into three marked opaque glasses while I was out of the room.

Glass A: A little muted with notes of banana skin, violets and dusty coffee. Full bodied with clean acidity and firm tannins carrying a short finish. More aromatics on the palate.

Glass B: Has the most complex aromatic profile with oak, cedar, dusty coffee and banana skin. More acidity and obviously firmer tannins that carry a longer finish than glass A.

Glass C: Very muted. Faint violet under dusty banana skin. Again firm tannins but little length to the finish. Nicely balanced but with less vibrant acidity than in glass B.

My opinion: B is from the bottle, A and C from the decanter.
Reality: B is from the bottle, A and C from the decanter.

Conclusion: After smelling all three glasses I was ready to name glass C as the decanted wine but tasting revealed that the wine in glass B was more vibrant with the firmer tannins encouraging a longer finish than the wine in the other two glasses. Still it did take a while to reach a final conclusion, and calling A and B as the wine from the bottle was always the backup decision.

Common to many wines the act of swirling the wine in the glass over time did open this wine even further. That does seem like a contradiction if exposure to air actually lessened the appeal of the wine. But exposure to air in a decanter and coating the inside of a glass with a thin film of wine by swirling are not one in the same. That thin coating of wine is likely to release its volatile components more readily possibly due to effects of surface tension and exposure to warmer air within the bowl itself. If you don’t believe me take two glasses, pour several ounces of wine into one and just a few milliliters into the other. Now swirl for a few moments and smell. Notice any difference?

Score: Wines tested 12, Decanters 1, Non-decanters 4.

The Great Decanting Experiment – Wine #11

For our eleventh wine I’ve chosen a style that the pundits argue benefits from the aeration that accompanies decanting. It’s a wine made from the Nebbiolo grape and can be massively tannic in its youth. That’s right to test the idea that decanting can soften tannins I’m turning to a Barolo! The decanting times recommended for Barolo run the gambit. The wine before me, the 2001 Paolo Scavino Barolo, has been given anything from no decanting to “double-decanting 8 hours before dinner”. And it can still be unapproachable. As science shows that decanting does not soften tannins it will be interesting to see if a few hours have any effect on this wine. This Paola Scavino Barolo has another distinction; it is the first of the wines I have purchased from Halfwit Wines, so I stole their bottle image!

Wine #11: Paolo Scavino Barolo 2001($29.00USD, 375ml), 14.5% alcohol.
One bottle was splash decanted and the other left unopen; both in the cellar at 56 degrees F. After 3 and a half hours the second bottle was opened and the two wines poured randomly into three marked opaque glasses while I was out of the room.

Glass A: Rich ripe notes of dark fruits, anise, black coffee, smoke and oak. And a little tar. The palate is awash with BIG, drying tannins but also excellent depth and concentration. The finish is not lengthy but not overpowered by the astringency.

Glass B: Very muted with anise and the suggestion of alcohol. On the palate similar to glass A but with more juicy acidity that gives the wine some angularity. The finish is of charred, tarry notes.

Glass C: Muted; anise over sweet fruits. On the palate, the same as glass B with mouth drying astringency and angularity from the juicy acidity.

My opinion: A is from the bottle. B and C are from the decanter.
Reality: A is from the bottle. B and C are from the decanter.

Conclusion: My goodness, what is that sound? Oh, its OK. Its only the pundits shuffling in their ranks as they mill about hoping that someone will defend the decanting of Barolo; if only to get rid of that dry feeling they have in their mouths! In truth I was just a little apprehensive about this wine because if big, tannic wines do benefit from aeration then this is the style to show it. And it was very clear from the first whiff of each glass that there were two different flavor profiles. Tasting the wine revealed additional differences which, at least to my palate, argue that this Barolo should not be decanted. As to decanting softening the tannins? Barolo is so tannic that its really only aging that will soften these wines, a LOT of aging.

The wine that remained after the tasting was used to fill one of the 375 ml bottles and stored in the refrigerator overnight. It will be interesting to see what effect that produces!

Score: Wines tested 11, Decanters 1, Non-decanters 3.

The Great Decanting Experiment – Wine #10

For our tenth wine we return to the Napa Valley and the other variety that has made this region famous, Cabernet Sauvignon. Paradigm Winery has been reputed to make one of the top 50 Cabernet based wines in Napa Valley. In the past it has been one wine that I have rated highly in blind tastings. This wine also has the distinction of having Heidi Peterson Barrett as its winemaker. Barrett has been the winemaker for Screaming Eagle, the pinnacle of cult Napa Cabernets. An impressive pedigree indeed!

Wine #10 2002 Paradigm Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville, Napa valley, California: ($24.99USD, 375ml), 14.8% alcohol.
One bottle was splash decanted and the other left unopen; both in the cellar at 56 degree F. After 2 and a half hours the second bottle was opened and the two wines poured randomly into three marked opaque glasses while I was out of the room.

Glass A: Dusty earth, charred, tarry notes over evident alcohol and black olives. Very soft entry with unexpected finesse on the palate, fine tannins but lacking a persistent finish.

Glass B: More richly flavored with stewed, charred flavors over coffee and black fruits. Softer tannins but otherwise as for glass A. More flavor carry than glass C.

Glass C: As for glass A with dusty earth, charred and tarry notes over black olives. Softer than glass B, but otherwise more like glass A. Not a lot of flavor carry, almost dead in the mouth.

Note: Dusty note blows off in the glass and is not evidence of a corked wine.

My opinion: Glass B is from the bottle, glasses A and C are from the decanter.
Reality: Glass B is from the decanter, glasses A and C contain wine from the bottle.

Conclusion: Well it only took 10 wines to find one that shows improvement with decanting. OK, you could argue that its less because some of the wines tested might never benefit from decanting, but as I have said before there will be no discrimination against any wine. What was questionable about this decanting test was the lack of varietal definition in the Paradigm even with aeration. Compared to a bottle of 2003 Whitehall Lane Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (14.2% alcohol) drunk a few days later, the Paradigm showed little of the freshness and fruit flavor that you might expect from a wine still in its youth. Still it will be interesting to source a few more splits (375 ml) of Napa Cabernet to see if any more benefit from decanting. My opinion? A simple no should suffice.

Score: Wines tested 10, Decanters 1, Non-decanters 2.

The Great Decanting Experiment – Wine #9

If a big, fruity Pinot Noir from Carneros is adversely affected by aeration I wonder what happens to a Burgundy. I’m not going to open anything special just a Premier Cru (also denoted as 1er Cru) from Mercurey in the Côte Chalonnaise. There are something like 30 vineyards that are designated Premier Cru in Mercurey. I would have preferred for it to have been a Faiveley, but we can’t have everything.

Wine #9 2005 Mercurey 1er Cru, Clos des Montaigus, Domaine Patrick Size, Burgundy, France: ($13.99USD, 375ml), 13% alcohol.
One bottle was splash decanted and the other left unopen; both in the cellar at 56 degree F. After 3 hours the second bottle was opened and the two wines poured randomly into three marked opaque glasses while I was out of the room.

Glass A: Subtle but attractive notes of cherry and anise. Medium weight with very soft (velvety) entry and nice flavor carry. Finishes with a touch of astringency and slightly sour acidity.

Glass B: Very closed, almost nothing. Faint cherry, grapey notes over a trace of anise. Did open with time. Nicely balanced with nice acidity and a soft and supple presence on the palate, finishing with firm tannins.

Glass C: As for glass A with an additional herbal note. On the palate, very much like glass A with nice juicy acidity and softer astringency than glass B.

My opinion: B is from the decanter, A and C are from the bottle.
Reality: A and B are from the decanter, C is from the bottle.

Conclusion: This wine was tasted on June 6th, and I’ve been reluctant to post the assessment for several reasons. First, my success with 2003 Robert Stemmler Carneros Pinot Noir made me confident, perhaps too confident, that I was correct in identifying which glass held the decanted Burgundy. Unrewarded expectations can be a real insult to the ego! Second, and more importantly, this wine did not taste like a Pinot Noir; there was no varietal definition at all. It is not a wine that I would recommend. But then this decanting experiment is not about my ego (well not yet!) and its not about identifying wines that I would recommend. The purpose is to see if aeration influences the flavor profile and taste of wine. So here is another wine that is not affected by a good dose of exposure to air.

There is one concern. Is there a problem with glass B? To reduce the number of variables I’ve kept the same labels on the three glasses and so its possible that a problem with the glasses might be affecting the outcome of these comparisons. For 4 of the 9 wines tested glass B has revealed less aroma and bouquet than either glasses A and C. Not enough of a difference to say that glass B has some sort of fault. I’ll keep the order the same until a dozen wines have been examined, and then I’ll do reshuffle because I do have six of these glasses.

Score: Wines tested 9, Decanters 0, Non-decanters 2.

The Great Decanting Experiment – Wine #8

For the next wine let’s go back to South Australia, to McLaren Vale and d’Arenberg’s The Dead Arm Shiraz. I’ve been able to source half bottles from 2002, one of the stellar vintages in recent years. The Dead Arm is partially barrel fermented before further maturation in American and French oak for around 20-22 months. It’s a blockbuster Shiraz style that has only been in bottle for a little over three years. Surely it needs some air, or does it?

Wine #8 2002 d’Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz, McLaren Vale, South Australia ($30.99USD, 375ml), 14.5% alcohol.
One bottle was splash decanted and the other left unopen; both in the cellar at 56 degree F. After 2 hours and 15 minutes the second bottle was opened and the two wines poured randomly into three marked opaque glasses while I was out of the room.

Glass A: A potpourri of stewed fruits over very ripe blueberry, toffee, coffee and olives. Full bodied, with big, firm tannins. Not a lot of flavor carry but well structured.

Glass B: As for glass A, not quite as open but more of a toasted aroma. Very much like glass A on the palate, but with more evident acidity.

Glass C: Quite like glass B in not being as open as glass A and again there is the presence of a toasted aroma. Palate as for glass B.

My opinion: A is from the bottle and B and C are from the decanter.
Reality: A is from the bottle and B and C are from the decanter.

Conclusion: While I’ve tasted better wines from the 2002 vintage, The Dead Arm is still really a baby and needs its rest; at least another 5 years. But if you do open a bottle what it doesn’t need is to sit in a decanter waiting for you to drink it. But then perhaps you prefer toasted, smoky notes that detract from more attractive fruit aromas? Do you think that d'Arenberg know something when they say of The Dead Arm Serve after decanting as an older wine.

Score: Wines tested 8, Decanters 0, Non-decanters 2.

Wine Aerators

It is a well acknowledged fact that wine tastes better after proper aeration. Aeration releases the delicate aromas of wine as well as improving the flavor of the wine. Fine Wine Toys

While I may not believe that statement, there is an industry out there producing gadgets for those who do, and some of it is pretty weird stuff.

There is the deSign Wine Aerator which comes in both bottle and wine glass sizes. All you do is insert the aerator into the wine and squeeze the bulb at the top to bubble your wines with air. And voilà, you have a nice head of foam, well for a few seconds anyway. I’m tempted to buy one just to show that this is very, very unlikely to do anything to wine, apart from adding a few bubbles.

If the deSign Wine Aerator sounds fishy, its got nothing on the Sea-riffic Pewter Aerators. At $30 each the puffer fish, sea horse, and octopus are used by inserting one of them into the mouth of a decanter and then pouring the wine over the aerator. I imagine you also get a good deal of foam with this method as well.

And if you really want to pump-it-up then there is the Air au Vin Wine Breather. Its been recommended by the BBC's Food and Drink programme, so it must work!

What ever happened to giving your decanter a good swirl a few times, if you are into that type of thing!

Wine Decanting – A scientific approach?

Eric Asimov of The Pour wine blog has approached his wine decanting in an interesting way, by using Erlenmeyer and volumetric flasks from a scientific supply house.

We have a bunch of these lying around the lab, maybe I should use some because Eric states that Most people rarely think of decanting white wines, but I’ve become a big proponent of this. Almost any good young white wine will be very tight when poured directly from the bottle. Decanting will not do the job of five years of aging, but the air absorbed by the wine as it is transferred to the vessel helps to unclench flavors and aromas.

Maybe the reason why all of the white wines that I have tested so far have not benefited from aeration by decanting is because I’m using the wrong decanter glassware!

The Great Decanting Experiment – Wine #7

Its not proving easy to find wines that benefit from a few hours in a decanter. OK, so only six wines have been tested so far and there would be serious debate as to whether some of them are true contenders for the title of “A wine that benefits from decanting”. So with the next wine let’s go BIG! The dogma is that young, big wines, with plenty of tannin, need some time in a decanter to calm down their belligerent tendencies; I don’t know why but that brought to mind an image of Paris Hilton after 45 days in jail!

Let’s go back to Napa, to the Robert Biale Vineyards, and taste their 2005 Napa Ranches Zinfandel. Biale is a highly regarded Zinfandel producer, and with hardly any time at all in the bottle, and almost 16% alcohol, the Napa Ranches is young and hot - a Paris Hilton wine? It should really be confined to a cold, dark place for years but let’s see if a little air might temper it.

Wine #7 2005 Robert Biale Vineyards Napa Ranches Zinfandel ($19.99USD, 375ml), 15.9% alcohol.
One bottle was splash decanted and the other left unopen; both in the cellar at 56 degree F. After 2 hours the second bottle was opened and the two wines poured randomly into three marked opaque glasses while I was out of the room.

Glass A: Very aromatic. Smoky oak, blackberry and an aroma approaching violets. Very attractive. Entry is very soft, almost silky with good balance and carry of flavors. Finish is carried by firm tannins. The alcohol is hidden extremely well

Glass B: Less open, with burnt, tarry notes. In the mouth the wine is very similar to glass A, but has a little more astringency.

Glass C: Aromas are as for glass A. In the mouth the wine is the same as glass B

My opinion: Glass B is from the decanter and glasses A and C from the bottle.
Reality: A and B are from the decanter, and C is from the bottle.

Conclusion: Can I change my hypothesis? No, we haven’t even gone through a dozen wines. I could turn this around. After all Paris won’t be spending 45 days in jail, so anything is possible. But decanting, at least for 2 hours, has had little effect on most of the wines tested so far, and the outlook is for more of the same. The next wine is another Aussie Shiraz and I’m tempted to double decant it and then leave it for 24 hours. Why? Well that’s what one wine retailer does with Aussie Shiraz, so why not? On second thought, no. We will stick with the current format for a few more wines.

Score: Wines tested 7, Decanters 0, Non-decanters 1.

The Great Decanting Experiment – Wine #6

Lets try another 2003 Chardonnay, but this tine we’ll head off to Burgundy to the village of Chassagne-Montrachet, in the south of the Côte de Beaune. Flanked on either side by the appellations of Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet, the vineyards that go to make up the Louis Latour Chassagne-Montrachet Blanc produce wines that are fat and opulent with tropical fruit aromas. The 2003 has now spent some 3 years in bottle, still a little young but it should be revealing some of its character by now.

Should you decant such wines? Well over on Waitrose.com they suggest that a “big, barrel-fermented chardonnay can benefit from some air”. The reason? To get rid of overtly oaky flavours. A problem here is that wines that have undergone malolactic fermentation, apart from having less crisp acidity and greater palate weight, have better integration of fruit and oak character. Aeration by decanting didn’t really work at all for the Talbott, did it? The Louis Latour has had “100% malolactic fermentation followed by 8 to 10 months ageing in oak casks” so there is a question as to whether it will benefit from aeration. But Waitrose.com also has this quote - "I often ask our customers whether they would like a white burgundy decanted because oxygenation improves its aromas," says Claude Douard, sommelier at London restaurant Mirabelle. So this time I’ll leave the wines at cellar temperature during the decanting period and we’ll see if differences in smell and taste are more evident as the wines warm during the tasting comparison.

Wine #6 2003 Louis Latour Chassagne-Montrachet Blanc, Burgundy, France ($14.97USD, 375ml), 13.5% alcohol.
One bottle was splash decanted and the other left unopen; both in the cellar at 56 degree F. After 2 hours the second bottle was opened and the two wines poured randomly into three marked opaque glasses while I was out of the room.

Glass A: Quite delicately flavored with nice citrus, melon, peach and anise aromas. Fat and full with an excellent softness across the palate finishing with nice acidity but not very impressive flavor carry or length.

Glass B: As for A. An oak note comes up with warming. Palate as for A.

Glass C: As for A and B. An oak note comes up with warming. A little softer and more supple than A and B.

My opinion: A is decanted wine and B and C are from the freshly opened bottle.
Reality: C is decanted, A and B from the bottle.

Conclusion: There was little to distinguish between the different glasses. No surprise there. These wines don’t do much with air over a few hours. In fact the wine was essentially the same 24 hours later after all the remaining wine was put into one of the bottles, and left in the fridge.

Score: Wines tested 6, Decanters 0, Non-decanters 1.

The Great Decanting Experiment – Wine #5

The next wine is the 20th vintage of a wine that Talbott Vineyards call a benchmark for California Chardonnay. From vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA, the 33 year old vines yielded two and a half tons an acre at crush. Grapes were lightly pressed into French oak barrels (30% new, the balance being seasoned and neutral), barrel-fermented, and then barrel-aged 14 months sur lees, stirred twice a month, and bottle-aged 12 months prior to release in June of 2006.

This 2003 wine was described by Michael Apstein of Wine Review Online (August 2006) as “Now, with a 20-year track record, most everyone will agree that Talbott’s Sleepy Hollow Vineyard Chardonnay is surely one of California’s best examples of that varietal…it’s a glorious wine.” 95 points.

Wine #5 2003 Talbott Chardonnay, Sleepy Hollow Vineyard, Monterey County, USA ($14.99USD, 375ml), 14.7% alcohol.
One bottle was splash decanted and the other left unopen. After 2 hours and a half hours the second bottle was opened and the two wines poured randomly into three marked opaque glasses while I was out of the room.

Glass A: Richly flavored with notes of nectarine, toasted oak and minerality (petrichor). Underneath is a honeyed, almost marmalade aroma. A mouthfilling wine, with a soft and supple entry and fatness across the palate and an added flavor of apricot. Excellent length with persistence of flavors.

Glass B: Aromas as for glass A, with perhaps more pronounced nectarine. On the palate there is a little more minerality and crisp acidity than glass A.

Glass C: Aromas as for glasses A and B, with perhaps more pronounced nectarine. Very similar on the palate to the other glasses with a touch more crisp acidity.

My opinion: B and C are from the bottle and A is decanted
Reality: B is decanted and A and C are from the bottle.

Conclusion: Again I was pulling at straws in trying to detect any differences in the wine in the three glasses. Very much an exercise in futility that is obvious from my attempt to use crisp acidity as a differential feature of the wine. With barrel-fermentation, and barrel-aging on its lees in 70% seasoned and neutral oak, it has almost certainly undergone malo-lactic fermentation.

Score: Wines tested 5, Decanters 0, Non-decanters 1.

The Great Decanting Experiment – Wine #4

This next wine is a five year young Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that should be coming into its own. The 2002 Peter Franus Cabernet Sauvignon is a mix of fruit from Rancho Chimiles (south east of Napa Valley) and Hyde Vineyard (Carneros). Aged for 18 months in 100% French Oak (75% new). Even though it should be just be entering its drinking window I’m expecting it to be still tightly focused with firm tannins and obvious oak. This is the type of wine that advocates of aeration suggest will benefit from a few hours in a decanter.

Wine #4 2002 Peter Franus Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa, USA ($19.99USD, 375ml), 14.5% alcohol.
One bottle was splash decanted and the other left unopen. After 2 hours the second bottle was opened and the two wines poured randomly into three marked opaque glasses while I was out of the room.

Glass A: Rich and ripe with blueberry, blackberry, banana skin, toasted oak and cedar. Full bodied with firm, drying tannins, nice acidity and good length to the finish. More carry of flavors onto the palate than glass B.

Glass B: Subdued with anise and smoky notes. Not as open as glasses A and C. Full bodied with considerable astringency but lacking depth on the mid-palate. Notes of smoke and oak evident on the palate.

Glass C: Blueberry, smoky oak, banana skin, anise and cedar. On the palate big, drying tannins with nice juicy acidity. Not overly complex. Similar flavor carry onto the palate as glass A.

My opinion: Decanted wine is glass B. Non-decanted wine is glasses A and C.
Reality: A and B are decanted. C is from the freshly open bottle.

Conclusion: Although the notes above may not show it, I really struggled to identify differences between the wine in the three glasses. My notes are really amplifications of what I was smelling and tasting and do not truly represent the fact that the wine was essentially identical in all three glasses. Decanting for 2 hours really did not affect the perception of astringency at all. Some may argue that this is not a classic Napa Cabernet and that other wines would perform differently. And that a longer decant will show differences. Well call me a halfwit, I guess its time to source some other Cabs!

Score: Wines tested 4, Decanters 0, Non-decanters 1.

A New and Potentially Embarrassing Fact

From To Breathe or Not to Breathe. That is the Question! And the answer might surprise you. By Denman Moody

In May 1977, my friend Alexis Bespaloff published an article entitled “A Corking New Wine Theory” in New York Magazine… Although the article had nothing to do with corks, it nonetheless presented a radical new approach in regard to letting wines breathe.

In blind tastings with Kevin Zraly, cellarmaster at Windows on the World, John Sheldon, wine consultant at Tavern-on-the-Green, and other notables, including Robert Mondavi, Paul Draper of Ridge, and Alexis Lichine of Chateau Prieure – Lichine, a new, and potentially embarrassing, fact was uncovered by Bespaloff.
For Draper, the wine used was his 1974 Geyserville Zinfandel. For Mondavi, his 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon and for Lichine, his 1967 Chateau Prieure – Lichine.

In each case, for each taster, one of his bottles was decanted one hour before serving, one was simply uncorked an hour before serving, a third was decanted and served minutes before the tasting and the fourth was just uncorked and served minutes before the tasting… (Mondavi and Lichine also tasted each other’s wines.)

Don’t shoot the messenger, but: In every case, including a 1973 Chateau Pichon-Lalande with Zraly and Sheldon, the bottle that was just uncorked and served - at the time of the tasting - was preferred!

Decanting - Another Opinion

Here is a decanting experiment that just caught my attention while Googling. OK, so its only one wine and it appears that the decanted and undecanted wines were not given to each individual at the same time; so direct comparisons could not be made. The conclusions do suggest that individual palates may respond to decanted wine differently. Although the effect of aeration on the perception of tannins is interesting! (I have bolded some sections that I find of interest. Click on the link at the bottom of the post to link to the original article.)

I admit that I had envisioned a specific result: that the decanted wines would generally lack pizzazz and that the undecanted wine would emerge as the victor. Not only was my assumption wrong, I was totally unprepared for what transpired.

Throughout the tasting, people kept saying that that they couldn't believe they were tasting the same wine. Clearly, decanting and aeration have a substantial effect. There was no clear-cut winner, though. One taster liked the undecanted wine (that was me!) and one taster liked the wine that had sat out for 24 hours. Nobody liked the wine that was aerated for one hour. And the remaining samples were fairly evenly distributed, although there was a slight skew toward the two-hour aeration period.

My own perceptions may have been clouded by my admitted prejudice and the fact that I knew which sample was which. I like fresh wines with lots of nose. Only the undecanted wine could be characterized this way. I was also very surprised by the reaction of the tannins. Folk wisdom says that aeration softens the tannins, yet in all of the aerated wines the tannins seemed harsher than in the unmanipulated wine, and the panel agreed.

In general, I found that the longer the wine had sat out, the more reserved (i.e. "dead") the nose. Here, too, the panel mostly agreed and their tasting notes supported this. THE FRUGAL OENOPHILE