The Beginner’s Guide: Decanters

Even if you haven’t heard of a decanter, you’ve probably seen one. We’ve briefly touched on decanters in a previous article, Zero to Hero: How to make cheap wine taste expensive. Decanters come in various shapes, with long bottlenecks and wide bases to beautiful dragon-like shapes. With its varying structures, do these decanters actually work? We sniff on to find out more.

History of Decanters

A decanter is a vessel to serve wine and spirits, and is often a centrepiece for many occasions. Their crystalline glass structures never fail to attract many ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ from guests alike, but other than its aesthetic purposes, decanters serve to provide an extra edge for your snazzy drink of choice.

Decanters have existed since the dawn of wine, where vessels of varying materials were used by servants. Decanters can be used for many spirits like whiskey, rum, gin, though its most popular use is for red wine. Today’s glass decanters can be attributed to the Ancient Romans, while the Renaissance period pioneered its iconic shape of a long neck and wide base to allow for better airflow. Using both oxidation and evaporation, this helps alcohol and spirits in many ways, elevating the tastes.

Traditional decanters, such as the one below, enable the wine to “open up” and “breathe”, allowing reductive traits such as aromas of burnt rubber or rotten eggs to waft off after being cooped up in a bottle for a long period of time. Soon after, volatile acidity that is in red wine that causes an intense “sharp” or “burning” feeling becomes less detectable on the tongue. During this process, the aromas of the wine become more apparent, and tannins that are in the wine begin to mellow out.


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Modern Aerators

While traditional decanters take anywhere between 15 minutes to 2 hours to decant, the market has opened up for aerators - a speedier alternative to decanting and helps to increase the surface area of wine that is in contact with air. With their small stature and convenience, the modern aerator is highly appropriate for young red wines, where flavours are more bold and tannic. Wine snobs shun these modern aerators, citing that it is not as natural as letting the wine “breathe” on its own, forcing air into the wine. Aerators are also not recommended for ancient wines, where their delicate nature may be affected by the aerator.  

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Conclusion

Whether it is aerators or a traditional decanter, almost all wines benefit from aeration. Head down to any of our outlets to purchase yours today! If you already have a decanter or aerator, why not purchase a few bottles of red wine alongside? With Cellarbration’s free alcohol delivery on orders $99 and above, you’ll be spoilt for choice.