Decanting & Storage

Decanting 101

Keep bottle upright at room temperature half a day before.
Ideal storage of wine ranges between 55°- 65°F

First, taste the wine.
Decant the wine – decanting is for taking the sediment out & for aeration.

Don’t decant too far ahead of time. Start tasting earlier than later.
A 20-30 minute window is a good start. You want to enjoy the wine while it is just opening up.

Taste the wine again – look for good aroma and good fruit.
Decide if it needs to be aired out:

If it’s ready, cap it!
If it needs time, go back to it every 15 minutes and see how it is behaving.
It needs time if, for any reason, you find it is tight or isn’t as expressive yet.
Remember: wine will continue to breathe while it develops in the glass too! You’ll be surprised how quickly it develops.

When the wine presents itself as such, cover it with glass lid/cellophane seal or serve.
Enjoy in good health. Cheers!

PRO-TIP:

Removing corks can be a messy job so it's best to use an ah-so or a durand to remove the cork instead -- corkscrews sometimes splinter the cork in half, thus creating more work. Regardless, crumbling cork is nothing to be discouraged about because you'll be filtering the wine anyway!

(ah-so) (durand)

Decant into a receptacle that is clean and does not smell of soap.

If you are filtering the wine into a paper towel, cheesecloth or coffee filter, please make sure whatever you are pouring it through is unscented!

Store it in the coolest, darkest place in your home. No light, no heat — as best you can.

Remember, the thing that damages wine the most is extreme temperature fluctuation in short bits of time.
You can put the wine in your fridge – by doing so you are slowing down the aging and development of the wine. This will not ruin the wine but it’s not optimal for the wine overtime!