Wine Wednesday: Decanting Wine

By Carrie Becker in Food on Jan 27, 2010 7:40PM

We drink wine pretty much daily. Sometimes its special occasion wine, sometimes the necessary glass of wine while cooking and almost always with dinner. Unfortunately, we are not the most patient wine drinkers...this is why decanting wine seems almost more of chore than a necessary step in making some bottles that much more enjoyable.

There are a couple reason why you would even bother with a decanter. For one, some wines have so much sediment that the wine is difficult to pour straight from the bottle into a glass without it leaving an ashy goop behind. The decanter allows for the sediment to settle before pouring. The decanter also helps a 'tight' wine 'open-up' acting as aerator with exposure to air.

On the flipside, when using a decanter you are committing to consuming the entire bottle that evening, not the one to two glasses you may like to consume on a weeknight. Plus, clean up can be a pain. A nice decanter, or carafe like glass, cannot be washed in the dishwasher and like most things that do not allow you to reach your hand inside and scrub often leaves streaks alongside the glass....a lot of work, huh?

Luckily, we have great friends who know we love wine and gave us the wine-lovers perfect gadget, Wine Soirée. Now, there have been several single pour decanters to hit the market recently and we haven't invested in any, mostly due to the price point. But after trying the Wine Soirée, we were happily surprised as to how both a cellared wine and a young, tight wine compared to previous experiences. The wines were more full and bright and were both easily sip-able on their own.

For near the $25 mark, we think this is a nice find for the everyday wine drinker like us. On this Wine Wednesday, we are using our Wine Soirée for a bottle of the fat, juicy, heavy sediment filled Brochelle Zinfandel. It's sure to warm us up for a cold Chicago night paired with some gut filling short ribs.