DECANTING QUESTION + POLL

[SEAN C.]

Does proper decanting actually involve transferring the Port to a decanter and leaving the stopper off or on?
I used to decant by leaving the the stopper off and thus allowing the Port to be more exposed to the outside air (obviously the time varies greatly depending on vintage). Recently I have just filtered, transferred, and re-stoppered the decanter. I'm wondering what most people here do.. or if there is a right or wrong way.

[John Danza]

I've always put the stopper on the decanter to prevent dust from getting in. I think the wine gets sufficient air in the act of pouring into the decanter and the airspace in the decanter itself.

All the best,
John

[Andy Velebil]

I leave the stopper off. Not sure if that makes a difference or not, but only one of my decanters even has a stopper so I've never worried about it.

[Todd Pettinger]

I leave the stopper OFF whilest decanting Port because it is difficult to get the wine INTO the decanter if the stopper is ON.

On a more serious note, I leave the stopper off afterwards for at least a day. After a day, if I remember and if the stopper is next to the decanter, then I sometimes put in on. (This of course assumes that there is anything left in the decanter after a day... less likely than me remembering to put the stopper in, but it does happen.)

Because I only have one decanter at the moment, most of my ports, with the exception of the special Vintages get double-decanted back into the washed out bottle after a few hours of air in the crystal decanter.

Todd

[Roy Hersh]

If YOUR purpose for decanting is to remove sediment, then it probably does not matter. However, if you are decanting to allow the wine to evolve in decanter, then allowing the oxidation process to work best (and fastest) can be achieved quite nicely with the stopper flipped to the OFF position.

[Al B.]

I've got absolutely no evidence or even empirical experience to back up my theory, but I believe that the simple act of pouring the wine from bottle to decanter, through a filter or funnel, mixes enough oxygen into the port to allow the oxidation process to run quite nicely. I think the question of stopper on or off does not affect the way in which the wine develops. I thought from my basic chemistry 101 that the diffusion of oxygen into a liquid was a very slow process, so slow that it would take many years for all of the oxygen to get stripped out of the air in a decanter and consumed by the chemical process that represents the oxidation of a port.

The only thing that I can suggest to support my theory is to ask whether anyone who stoppers their decanters has ever experienced a partial vacuum inside the decanter after having filled it with port and then left the stopper on for a few hours?

Alex

[Frederick Blais]

Do you leave the stopper on or off on the decanter during decanting?

During decanting it is not on But yes I do put it back on once it rest before being emptied

[Michael C.]

As others have already pointed out, this is clearly a trick question...

I leave the stopper off for an hour or so and then put it back on the decanter ... I have friends who leave the stopper off for several days and have seen a thin layer of dust develop on top of the port.

I agree with Al's statement -- I'm fairly certain the wine gets sufficiently aerated while being poured into the decanter in the first place. Especially if you use a funnel that spreads/separates the wine or squeezes the liquid into a small stream ... as long as you maximize the port's contact with the air on its way into the decanter, I think you're good to go.

[SEAN C.]

Do you leave the stopper on or off on the decanter during decanting?

During decanting it is not on But yes I do put it back on once it rest before being emptied

HAHA! Nice one..I should say "during the process of decanting" or "after transferring to the decanter" ..but I believe my initial post explains it correctly..maybe I'll edit the poll.
Looks like "off" is currently winning!

[Roy Hersh]

Alex, Derek, Andy and others here witnessed first hand that the vast majority of Port Shippers just pop and pour vintage Ports no matter what their age.

Then again, with thousands of impressions of opening Vintage Ports by FTLOP members, it is pretty clear that just about everyone agrees that decanting their bottles improves the outcome. Whether that is just for an hour or three days, varies by individual, but I don't know anybody that has ever said that decanting of VP is not necessary.

[Frederick Blais]

Alex, Derek, Andy and others here witnessed first hand that the vast majority of Port Shippers just pop and pour vintage Ports no matter what their age.

Maybe it is because they don't have enough decanter for all the ports they make you sample From my experience, most employees or owners I've taste port with in Portugal did at least open the VP bottles a few hours before serving it. But yes most of them don't bother decanting because the bottle will not be emptied and it is easier to just put the cork back on with no decanter to clean.

[Roy Hersh]

Come on, do you think they have to clean the decanters? Anyway, I don't think they leave the VP with sediment in it.

[Bill Crann]

For 10 years I used a traditional decanter with a stopper and even after 12 hours I didn't feel a lot of the ports really opened up much (compared to the next day after I poured the remainder into a a 375 and put in the fridge). Now I pour the entire bottle into a large water pitcher an I place Saran wrap on the top and place in the cellar for 6 to 12 hours before pouring back into the cleaned original bottle for serving. This seems to open up tight Ports more. I guess the best thing is to chose a VP that has fully awoken from it's adolescent slumber.

Bill

[Kris Henderson]

I agree with Alex. I doubt leaving the stopper in or out has much affect on the aeration process especially if the decanter leaves a large surface area of the wine exposed with a large head space.

During the spring and summer months, I've noticed that fruit flies tend to come out of the woodwork whenever I open a Vintage Port (or other red wine) so I generally put the stopper in the decanter or cover the top with tissue paper to keep the bugs out.

[Moses Botbol]

During the spring and summer months, I've noticed that fruit flies tend to come out of the woodwork whenever I open a Vintage Port

Ants come marching in as soon as I leave an empty port bottle on my kitchen counter

[Andy Velebil]

Ants come marching in as soon as I leave an empty port bottle on my kitchen counter

Moses,

They're just craving the good stuff too

[Roy Hersh]

It could be worse ... think: wasps or nefarious spiders!!

[Julian D. A. Wiseman]

A friend of mine with a PhD in Chemical Engineering (from Cambridge University, no less), a chap with a brain the size of a small asteroid, insists that if wine is left standing with the cork off, over a day air/oxygen will reach no more than a few millimetres into the liquid. He says that the pouring mixes air in, and whether stopper be on or off, that’s pretty much all the air that’s getting in.