Charla Jones/The Globe and Mail
The question
I store my wines in a wine cooling unit at 57 degrees F. How long before a meal should I decant a red wine and does the answer depend on the wine's age? I've heard that old wines may lose their bouquet quickly and that young wines would benefit from greater exposure to oxygen. True or false?
The answer
Opinions vary on decanting rituals (some sommeliers even decant Champagne!), but in your case I would recommend about 30 minutes before dinner, and this is for a reason you might not expect.
There are two main reasons to decant a wine into a separate vessel. One is to separate the liquid from its bottle sediment, which is mainly a concern with old wines. The second is aeration, and I'm guessing from you question's wording that this may be your chief concern. The flavour of many wines – particularly young, tannic reds, tends to improve with a bit of exposure to oxygen. That's why many wine-specific decanters are big and shaped with a wide midsection – to maximize surface area at the 750-millilitre level.
While it's true that more surface means better interaction with oxygen, you've in fact accomplished a good deal of aeration simply by letting the bottle's contents slosh down the decanter's neck when pouring. A few seconds of aggressive agitation are worth hours of still life in a decanter. (Think of it: There's more aeration happening at Niagara Falls than at a stagnant pond or reservoir.) So, no need to decant, say, six hours before dinner unless you cherish the sight of a filled decanter and the Pavlovian anticipation that comes with it.
There is a third and less often considered reason for decanting: heating. A good cellar temperature like yours – 57 F, or about 14 C – is a tad too cold for red wines at the table. Decanters draw in warmth, both through the air as well as through glass that is generally thinner than that of a wine bottle. In half an hour, your bottles should reach a more agreeable drinking temperature, though keep in mind that lighter reds generally taste better cooler than do, say, cabernet sauvignon or syrah.
I have been generalizing, of course. You raise an important point about older wines being more fragile than young. This is something that even many serious collectors and self-proclaimed experts don't appreciate.
Some tannic old cabernets and Barolos may remain tight and shy in flavour even at 20 or 30 years, but frankly not that many. The main reason to decant old wines is to pour liquid off its sediment, and this can and generally should be performed close to the time of service. I suspect that many people confound one ritual for another simply because the same vessel, a decanter, is used both to aerate and to clarify. If your old wine is a fragrant, delicate, light-bodied red such as pinot noir, you're taking a big risk by decanting and letting it sit around for hours, where it's likely to become desiccated and taste like stale prunes. (There are exceptions, of course, such as many grand cru red Burgundies.)
If in doubt, try this: Taste a small pour from the bottle first (no harm in that). If it seems closed and muted, then by all means give it a whirl in your fancy crystal. On the other hand, if it ain't broke, don't decant it.
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