ThePortForum.com

Is it wrong to decant cold?

House-trained folks know that the correct process is:

• Some months in advance, stand the bottle in the cellar;
• About half a week before drinking, bring it up to reach room temperature;
• Bottle dependent, between 24 hours and 0 hours in advance, decant, to breathe.

But sometimes there wasn’t enough planning^†. In an emergency, is it wrong to decant cold? That is, is it wrong to decant upon on emergence from the cellar, so that the reaching-room-temperature and the breathing happen simultaneously?

I’m after three things here — please label which you are bringing.
① Opinions;
② Informed opinions;
③ Evidence.

And, if it is wrong, how wrong is it?


† E.g., purely hypothetically, on an unseasonably autumnesque Sunday in mid-to-late July, there being an emergency requirement for a bottle of Crasto 2015 ʟʙᴠ. Obviously this is merely speculative and conjectural, not necessarily an actual occurrence.

Opinion:

The wine world overthinks wine. Decant cold, decant warm, it does not matter. If cold it will warm up shortly in the decanter. If too warm, put into fridge to chill while it gets air. Only thing that matters is time spent in decanter.

(1) No
(2) It's actually helpful to decant cold
(3) Many winemakers (especially white wine makers) cold stabilise their wines before bottling to precipitate out solids (tartrates especially).

There’s only one way to know the correct answer…


But my opinion is that there is nothing wrong with decanting cold. Doing so should give you a crystal clear wine since you are effectively carrying out a very gentle cold stabilisation of the wine.

Also, I rarely bring a bottle up to room temperature before decanting. Modern room temperature is generally too warm for my taste, I prefer drinking my VP and LBV at cellar temperature (12-14C) than at modern room temperature (my thermostat says that would be 23C this afternoon).

Well, I am pleased to have asked the question. By habit and believed custom, I have generally decanted after reaching room temperature. But two people, whose judgements I trust, actively favour decanting cold. This has been an education for a young padawan.

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑18:15 Sun 23 Jul 2023There’s only one way to know the correct answer…

How could such an experiment be structured?

jdaw1 wrote: ↑19:33 Sun 23 Jul 2023How could such an experiment be structured?

I suppose that at its simplest, you ask half the people at the tasting to bring two bottles of Port which come from the same case. One bottle is decanted at cellar temperature, one at room temperature.

The ports are poured blind as to method of decanting. Tasters state their preference for A or B (or neither). Once scoring is finished, decanting method is revealed.

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑21:11 Sun 23 Jul 2023

jdaw1 wrote: ↑19:33 Sun 23 Jul 2023How could such an experiment be structured?

I suppose that at its simplest, you ask half the people at the tasting to bring two bottles of Port which come from the same case. One bottle is decanted at cellar temperature, one at room temperature.

The ports are poured blind as to method of decanting. Tasters state their preference for A or B (or neither). Once scoring is finished, decanting method is revealed.

Sounds like a fun evening!

I think people vex too much on this issue, especially when handling robust wines, which can include those of some antiquity.

When handling very frail wines, both fortfied and non fortified, prior resting for a few months can be very beneficial; but I can't make a scientific case to explain why. I do know that wines that can be very elegant after long resting, can also be a dismal mess if decanted soon after a flight.

I tend to the view that standing up bottles prior to decanting usually only serves to reduce wastage if you are decanting without using a gauze. An argument for an exception can be made when the wine is decayed and has very fine sediment in suspension, which is apt to pass through a gauze.

This is only really a visual impairment however, I'm not convinved that many people could detect a hazy wine if drinking out of an opaque glass.

This of course is my informed opinion after opening a thousand plus bottles of port, I could still be wrong.

How could it be tested? A roughers and smoothers tasting perhaps, whereby maybe six pairs of bottles are brought, one bottle mollycoddled, decanted at home and carefully delivered to the venue, with the other drawn from its rack that morning and decanted without ceremony at the restaurant.

The MC then presents each pair to the attendees, who have no idea which is which..

The only issue I have with this is that if six people each bring two identical bottles then there will obviously be two bottles per person to drink.

I think perhaps each person needs to bring two bottles and a guest or we will either waste port or get very drunk !

Either way it would be an interesting evening

Report on a test experiment.