Decant, Decant, Decant…

I was at a large group ’steak night’ dinner last night, where a lot of wine was poured.  I’ll be blogging about that later this week (or maybe next?), but there’s something I need to get off my chest right now…  Anyone who drinks wine on a somewhat-regular basis needs to own a decanter!

…and you might be thinking, “but Neil, I drink moderately priced wine, I don’t need a decanter…”.  While I’ll acknowledge that some wines are meant to ‘drink now’ and may not benefit a whole lot from decanting, and ‘two-buck chuck’ isn’t going to ‘open up’ after an hour, most 10-20 dollar wines (especially the cool deals I’ve been finding lately in our economy) WILL benefit from 20 minutes to an hour in a decanter.

Here’s the perfect example.  I opened another bottle of the 2002 Cape Mantelle Cabernet from Australia, and the ‘green/mint’ quality I blogged about last week was much more pronounced in this bottle, it was the unmistakable flavor of bell pepper.  This flavor is typically associated with the grapes being a bit under-ripe when picked, and while some people like it, I’m not so crazy about it.   By the time the last glass was poured, this vegetal note was much more subdued and balanced with the fruit, thus much more enjoyable to me.  At that point, I was kicking myself for not asking for the wine to be decanted; had it spent 20 minutes getting some air, I would have had the pleasant flavor of my fourth glass starting with glass one.

Now you might be saying, “Neil, I can’t afford a good decanter..”.  Look, I’m with you.  I can’t afford an expensive crystal decanter either.  But I can afford a relatively inexpensive decanter at 20-30 bucks.  Here are some great examples of cheap decanters available online: $16.99 at WineEnthusiast, $17.99 at Cooking.com, $23.96 at Sur La Table or if you scroll down here at Homeclick.com you can get a Riedel ‘Merlot’ decanter for $24.00, the same at WineEnthusiast, (obviously shipping charges apply at these places).  If you’re near a Sur La Table store, you can always walk in, I bet they have a similar deal.

If you live near an Ikea, pop in and look for a decanter.  I bought one there and I know it was less than $20.

Pick one up and give it a try; I promise you’ll notice a difference, and you’ll be glad you did.