UNCORKED
I cannot be the only person to have been astonished upon reading the title of Kerin O’Keefe’s column (Decanter, April 2023). Opinions about decanting are many and varied, but to say emphatically that older wines should never be decanted is a bridge too far.
Over many years in the trade, I have attended, moderated, and presented countless tastings involving wines from classic origins. Some of the vintages were decades old. Personally, I favour caution with respect to decanting: too much air too far in advance is never wise. On the other hand, my experience and palate have taught me that a great number of older wines of genuine stature are improved – that is, reveal more – by being decanted. In part, simply removing the wine from its sediment is a plus. Kerin O’Keefe is categorical regarding the drawbacks of decanting. She seems to imply that it is dictated by a rigid, preordained formula. How far in advance a wine should be poured into a carafe is in fact flexible and can be adjusted to fit the wine and context. In some cases, merely half an hour might ‘loosen’ the wine.
Some readers may recall three excellent articles on this topic in Decanter some 10 years ago. You assembled a highly skilled and experienced panel including Gerard Basset OBE MW MS, Stephen Brook and Steven Spurrier to examine the question of decanting. Vintages tasted included such ‘older’ ones as 1997, 1996 and 1980. Among the conclusions were that, for high-level Bordeaux and Napa Cabernet, some aeration was ‘better than none’ and decanting one hour before was ‘consistently good’. For top-flight Syrah/Shiraz from the Rhône and Australia’s Barossa, the differences between decanted and non-decanted wines were smaller by comparison. There was, similarly, little benefit from ‘very long aeration’. For vintage Port, ‘one to two hours’ of aeration was said to be safest.
Still, it is virtually impossible to conduct reliable taste tests which pertain to all wines in all vintages; in short, there are no universal rules governing whether and for how long to decant. However, to dismiss decanting older wines unconditionally is taking matters too far. Roger C Bohmrich MW, New York, USA
LETTERS OF THE MONTH
Just read Kerin O’Keefe on decanting older wines, Italian wines in particular. I couldn’t agree with her more! I had dinner with a good friend last week and brought a bottle of 2001 premier cru Burgundy to drink with the lamb. He asked if he should decant it, and I responded somewhat overly loudly, NO!!!
We started on that wine and he opened a bottle that he had selected from his cellar. It was a very nice Syrah from Sonoma County, and
