For The Love Of Port

Are decanters supposed to come with corks or stoppers? When somebody says that something was "decanted for 12 hours", is that with the cork on or off? And when they talk about the taste "on day 3", was the stopper off the decanter the whole time?

Alan,

I have 3 decanters and they all come with glass stoppers. Normally, when I decant into one of these decanters it gets filled to about 2/3rds, leaving the rest of the decanter full of air.

12 hours of decanter time would mean that the wine was poured off the sediment and into the decanter 12 hours ago and was allowed to stand in the decanter (with the stopper in) and in contact with the air in the decanter for that time.

On the occasions when I have not put the stopper in the decanter for some reason, I have not noticed any difference in the way the wines change. I do see a difference, though, between decanting a wine (ie pouring it out of the bottle into a jug) and simply opening the bottle and leaving the bottle to stand for a while with no cork. The decanter route develops the wine more quickly and more fully.

Alex

Like Alex, I have not noticed any difference between stopper in or stopper out when decanting port. I very rarely use a stopper now.

Derek

In contrast to those above, I never put a stopper on my Vintage Port decanters while decanting the wine.

My understanding is that a "decanter" implies a stopper, whereas a "jug" implies its absence.

I think Roy was making a witty observation that if you have a stopper in a decanter while you are decanting the wine out of the bottle then you end up with wet feet.