While dining at the superb restaurant, Assaggio, in Seattle recently I had the good fortune to order a Barolo from the highly regarded 2001 vintage.
When the wine was presented for my approval it was clear from the ferocity of the tannic bite that this Barolo was far too young. But the sommelier had another idea. She poured the wine into a crystal decanter and let it breathe while I worked on the glass of Prosecco in front of me.
By the time the main course arrived and the Barolo was served, it had become a different wine: The tannins had smoothed out and the sweetness of the underlying fruit was beginning to emerge, revealing unimagined depth and glorious complexity. Over the next half hour the wine improved with each sip.
I was left to wonder why more restaurants don’t provide this simple tool of wine service, although I suspect I know the answer. The practice of decanting has long been controversial and in many casual restaurants might be seen as pompous.
Wine originally was decanted to remove the sediment from older vintages. This was done with great ceremony: a large crystal vessel, a lit candle, a wine cradle for delicately pouring off the clear liquid, and a steady, confident hand at the cradle.
The practice of decanting young wines for aeration is more recent. It is most often applied to big reds such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux and Burgundy (Pinot Noir), but some restaurants I know (the Napa Valley’s Martini House comes to mind) even decant white wines.
Aeration helps vaporize some of the alcohol and softens the tannins of red wines, which may seem hard, unyielding and grippy until they’re been exposed to air. Many devotees of decanting will even open a big, tannic red a day in advance, then decant it in the morning before serving it at dinner.
This practice has been pooh-poohed as unnecessary and often pretentious, but my own personal experience tilts me in favor of decanting. And anyone concerned with the perception of pretense need only substitute a glass carafe for a crystal decanter to avoid the scorn of friends or family!
A glass carafe works just fine and there’s less of a worry about damage from frequent usage.
The impact of decanting on whites is less obvious, but I’ve found the aromatics are greatly enhanced, particularly with Chardonnay and white Burgundy, where it can sometimes be a challenge to detect the fruit nuances beneath the strong aroma of oak. Aeration brings out the fruit and subdues the oak.
And there is the added benefit of temperature control. A chilled Chardonnay will remain cold, which inhibits the release of all its aromas, in an ice bucket. But in a carafe or decanter it warms slowly, releasing everything it has to offer in terms of aroma.
I suspect that some wine enthusiasts may be reluctant to transfer a special bottle of wine into a different vessel, preferring to show off their prize at the dinner table, but there are a couple of clever ways around that.
The first is to decant a wine, then wash out the bottle with cold water and return the aerated wine to the same bottle before serving. The second is to simply place the original bottle on the table next to the decanted wine, though space considerations could come into play, particularly in a restaurant.
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