Wine makers and just connoisseurs of wines are well aware that a lot of factors affect the taste and aroma of a drink, from the grape variety to the dishes in which it is served on the table. To add sophistication to the wine drinking process and further improve the quality of the product, there is a simple and at the same time quite effective device called a "decanter". What is it and how to use it to achieve the desired result?
Red and white
The words "wine" and "grapes" have the same root, because this drink is made exclusively from grapes. Alcohol from apples, plums and other fruits is anything but wine. Therefore, all the information offered in this article refers to natural grape wines. The traditional color gradation divides them into red, pink and white. Rosé wines have the widest palette of garnet and ruby shades. The color of white wines varies from light amber to yellow-brown, similar to weak tea leaves, and the older the wine, the darker it is. Red wines, on the other hand, lighten with age. This happens because the contentsin them, anthocyanins (coloring substances) precipitate over time. The color of red wines ranges from maroon to pale ruby. The sediment, although it is proof of the quality of the drink and the taste of the wine does not spoil, but worsens its appearance. To remove this small defect, use a decanter. What is it and is it necessary?
What is a decanter
Many of us are familiar with the situation: in a good restaurant, the waiter serves wine to the table not in a bottle, but in a glass decanter, and sometimes it looks like a flask from a chemical laboratory, and sometimes it has a rather bizarre shape - wide at the base, and at the top with a narrow neck. Such a decanter for wine is called a "decanter". Most often it is made of high quality glass or crystal.
There are practically no decorations on such a decanter. This is done so that nothing distracts a person from admiring the drink, and to make the process more aesthetic. The decanter can only be decorated with an unusually shaped handle, stand or lid. For decor, only neutral materials are used, such as gold, silver or cupronickel. Wooden, and even more so plastic elements are not allowed.
History of decanters
Some will be surprised to learn that people used decanters even before our era, starting from the 7th century. The very first of them were ceramic and consisted of amphorae, into which wine was poured before it was served.
Archaeologists are sure that glassdecanters were widely used in ancient Rome. However, with the fall of the power of the Roman Empire, glass production also began to decline. Glassware was replaced with bronze, copper, porcelain, and the relay race of glassblowers moved to Venice. The local masters have significantly improved the process of glass production and achieved its high purity. They also came up with a wine jug wide at the base with a high narrow neck. A decanter of this shape has long been considered a classic and is the most common.
Functions and types of decanters
According to some sources, the word "de-canther" is of Latin origin and in free translation sounds like "separating a part from a whole without mixing". This is the essence of the process of decanting wine - to separate it from the resulting sediment carefully, without mixing. But this is only one answer to the question of what a decanter is for. In addition to separating the sediment, it is used to enrich the wines with oxygen, which means giving them new, subtle flavors.
The third function of the decanter is purely aesthetic - to serve wine with a special charm to the table, to emphasize the sophistication of the drink and the high quality of service. Depending on the main purpose of use, there are different types of this dish. Since sediment is usually found in aged red wines, there is one type of decanter for them. For young drinks, a completely different type is used.
Decanter for aged wines
Red shades of wine give coloringsubstances present in the skins of blue, red and black grapes from which they are made. The same components tend to precipitate over time, or rather, after 4 or more years from the date of manufacture.
There are practically no coloring substances in white varieties, therefore it is the decanter for red wine, aged vintage or collection, that has a shape that allows you to get rid of sediment as much as possible. Outwardly, it looks like a laboratory flask - round or spherical in the lower part, and having a narrow neck in the upper part. Such a decanter may look like a classic decanter with wide "shoulders" that retain sediment when pouring wine into glasses. Most often, this action is performed for aged Bordeaux drinks. Burgundy wines are so delicate and fragile that decanting is rarely used for them, and even then in a decanter with a lid.
Decanter for white wines and wines without aging
There is no sediment in young and white wines. For them, decanting is carried out solely in order to saturate them with oxygen and improve the aroma, open them, as the professionals say.
The shape of the decanters in this case should ensure maximum contact of the drink with air. Their lower part can be anything - round, oval, trapezoidal or any other, as long as it is wide. The neck of such decanters is made in the form of a funnel, which allows the stream of pouring wine to “spread out” in the form of a fan. The poured level must not exceed thewide part of the decanter, so that the contact of the drink with air is maximum. Recently, even individual sparkling wines, such as champagnes, have been decanted in this way. For aeration, the drink must be in the decanter from several minutes to several hours, otherwise it will lose quality.
How to use the decanter
In order to separate the sediment as much as possible, experienced bartenders and sommeliers have some tricks. So, bottles of wine that are going to be decanted are placed vertically for some time (from several hours to several days). This helps the existing sediment sink to the bottom as much as possible. Be sure to light a candle in the process of pouring wine from a bottle into a decanter. What does it give? If aged wine is being decanted, the flame of a candle will help not to miss the moment when the sediment approaches the neck of the bottle. The sommelier immediately stops the process. If young wine is being decanted, a candle gives the process a special charm.
To preserve the taste of aged wine as much as possible, pouring begins with rinsing the decanter with the same drink. To do this, first it is poured into a decanter a little bit, shaken so that it covers the walls from the inside, and poured into a separate glass. Hold the decanter by the neck or, if you need to slightly warm the wine, by the bottom. This is how the warmth of the hand is transferred to the drink. It should be noted that not even all aged red wines "can" endure contact with air without deteriorating their taste. Such varieties, as a rule, are not decanted and are poured from bottles directly into glasses.
What elsedrinks need to be decanted
In addition to wine, cognacs and whiskeys have a special exquisite aroma, the ritual of drinking which includes enjoying their appearance and smell. To maximize the disclosure of these drinks, they are also decanted during serving. A decanter for whiskey and cognac is somewhat different from a decanter for wine. As a rule, it is a rounded or square decanter with slightly extended "shoulders" and a low neck, made of transparent colorless glass or crystal. Transparency allows you to admire the drink, which adds to the aesthetics of the process.
Decantation is carried out in order to let the product "breathe". Previously, the rules for drinking cognac included the procedure for slowly washing the walls of the glass with a drink. And in Ireland, there is still a “Five S” rule regarding whiskey. Two points of these rules are to evaluate the color of the drink and inhale its aroma before drinking. So a decanter is also needed for whiskey and cognac.
Rules of care
Whatever drink is decanted - whiskey, cognac or wine - the decanter must be clean. Wash it only by hand and only with water without the addition of chemical detergents. Exclusive decanters are washed from the inside with professional brushes with a special type of bristles, wiped only from the outside, using special napkins for this. To keep the decanter dry from the inside, it is dried upside down on special pins or stands. Keep ready-to-use dishes preferably separate from the rest.
Prices and manufacturers
You can buy cheap, mid-priced and very expensive decanter. What does this difference in value mean? Cheap decanters, which cost between $8-20, are usually made from low-grade glass, which affects the quality of the decantation, as well as the performance of the dishes. Average-priced products that cost between $ 50-80 are considered quite worthy. They are made of high quality materials, are good in operation and do an excellent job with the functions assigned to them. They are produced for a wide network of restaurants and other drinking establishments, in which there should be a sufficient amount of such dishes.
The most expensive decanters are exclusive. They are produced in very small batches, sometimes single copies, and cost thousands of dollars and more. For such dishes, the highest quality crystal is used, which does not contain even a negligible fraction of foreign compounds, and the finish is made of precious metals. The most famous decanter brands are Spiegelau, Riedel, Schott Zwiesel.
