Riesling - taking air

Decanting wine is not a magic trick for improving quality, but a common method of separating solid particles from the liquid. In most cases it is a question of the so-called deposit in the bottle, which unpleasantly grates between the teeth, and should therefore be removed from the wine.

For this reason the bottle is carefully opened and slowly poured into a decanter under the light of a candle or a lamp. The light shows up the opaque and suspended particles which preferably should not reach the bottle's neck and are thus also kept out of the decanter.

The wine in the decanter is now clear, and preferably only a small quantity remains in the bottle containing the entire deposit. Another reason for decanting can be the intended aerating of the wine.

Because of the oxygen influence while transferring the wine from the bottle to the decanter, hard, severe and above all young wines - white as well as red - become rounder and more expressive in flavor.

The longer the time between decanting and serving, the stronger will be the effect of aeration, and incidentally, with almost all wines decanting leads to a flavoral improvement, perhaps with the exception of mature Pinots Noirs (Spätburgunder).