Is there any reason why carefully decanting a somewhat older wine is better than using a filter? I opened a '98 Pavie Macquin this evening and I used a filter (the Nuance Wine Finer) and I’m just wondering if it somehow filters out “too much”. Like, am I somehow filtering out anything meaningful that alters the taste of the wine vs decanting . . .
I always decant vs. filtering. I believe the theory being that if you are filtering you are going to lose some of the aromatics and flavors that you probably want to keep. People who filter wines for sediment seem to claim a more muted nose and palate. Is there a reason why a careful decant isn’t an option?
My method is always (almost) stand up bottle for an extended period and then double-decant out the gunk that settles at the bottom before drinking the wine. Wine looks much better, without the (or minimal) cloudiness and the clear-look I think imparts that it tastes better.
Assuming the wine has been standing for sufficient time, then carefully decant until you see sediment approach the neck. Then you have a choice. A. stop, B. Filter the remainder. I usually do the latter.
The problem is when, for whatever reason the wine has not been standing or even worse has been agitated for some reason. Then there are no good choices. I tend to filter in that case, I am really not a fine of even fine sediment in my wine.
My attention span sucks for that. I decant and usually miss any sediment, Then as the night goes, it ebbs down and sometimes I notice a residue on the side of the glass that tells me to slow down, take notice. Otherwise, the last sips give a surprise and then I brush my teeth twice as long before bed.
I decant 90% of a bottle and if there is visible sediment I filter what’s left through an unbleached coffee filter. I’ve been doing it for years and am consistently happy with the results.
I have drunk more than 5000 wines of vintages before 1970 and I have opened a majority of them by myself, because I love to open wines.
I use the slow oxygenation method, called the Audouze method, which consists in opening a wine 4 to 5 hours in advance, and then do nothing.
No decanting, no filter. Just pour the glasses, and the lees remain quietly at the bottom (I eat them).
The main advantage of this method is that a wine that you imagine to be dead because it stinks awfully will have a chance to recover completely, phenomenon which appears extremely frequently, as a miracle.
The other advantage is that the wine is larger, wider, and more accomplished, and will remain lively along the whole meal.
I use a metal strainer if there are big chunks of sediment in the neck or the cork crumbled. I can’t imagine using a paper filter. Then I ‘decant’ into the glass by pouring more carefully that I would with young wines. Stand up bottles ahead of time if that is an option. Doesn’t happen often for spur of the moment at home pops.
At home, I usually don’t filter or decant. I have plenty of bottles of red wine standing up and ready to go with the sediment concentrated on the bottom of the bottle. Pouring carefully, very little sediment gets into the wine glass. For the last couple ounces, I pour that into a separate glass and let the remaining sediment settle to the bottom of the glass.
While I know it would be more ideal, it ruins the spontaneity for me. A wine I stand up a week in advance may not ultimately be the wine I want to have that night.
Works for me. I don’t have enough cellared stuff of same producer/vintage that I patiently laid down for ages to play around with. So, I’ll have a couple of backups that are standing and ready to go and some may be young.
I usually do a traditional decant (visually) then filter the dregs through a 300 mesh filter into a separate glass. Why 300 mesh? Because the particle size that can get through 300 mesh is too small for humans to see - so that means I’d miss it visually anyway, and particles of that size probably already exist in the decanter.
You need to stand up (or, better, put in cradles) a dozen or so bottles each week, so you are all set for next week, while you are working on this week’s bottles that you stood up last week.
This is basically what we do. Every few days to a week one of us will pull 6 or so bottles of the types of red we drink most often from the cellar to sit under the stairs where is dark and cool. Sometimes we pull wine based on what we intend to cook. Sometimes we cook based on which wine has been standing up! It is also in my marriage contract that there must always be at least 1 bottle of champagne chilled at all times.
As to the original question, we almost never filter unless some cork has accidentally fallen in, and then just the last bit, as others have said. I find it helpful, when decanting off the last ounce or so from the visible sediment, to slowly and carefully turn the bottle, while holding it horizontally and tipping over so slightly.
I like this idea. I often start to see very fine solids in the wine when there’s still 1/5 or more of the wine left and I would love a way to get that leftover wine in a glass with out the sediment. When I look for this kind of strainer on Amazon, it seems like they are all cylindrical strainers for beer brewing. Is that what you have? I’d rather have a normal shaped hand held strainer if available.