🍷 Decanter

A decanter is a glass vessel into which wine is poured. This is done for two reasons. The first is to separate sediment. In old red wines small particles settle over the years in the bottle. The wine is poured carefully, and the sediment stays at the bottom of the bottle. The second is to let the wine breathe: in contact with air its aroma opens faster.

Decanters come in different shapes: with a wide base and narrow neck, a jug-like carafe, sometimes with a stopper. A wide surface suits young, dense wines, while a narrow one suits old and delicate wines that suffer from long contact with air. The process is called decanting.

Before decanting, the bottle is best left standing upright for a few hours. Not all wines need decanting: light whites and sparkling wines usually do not. A decanter is wine glassware, but it is not essential: a good glass and a little time give a similar effect. It is a tool, not a ritual.