Tips for Drinking/Decanting '79 Bordeaux

First foray into aged Bordeaux. A few friends and I turned 40 this year so will be celebrating w/some '79 Bordeaux. Even though it was not a great vintage excited to have our first foray into really old Bordeaux. Any suggestions as to drinking/decanting? Will be standing the wine up for a few weeks but not sure if we should decant, etc. since most reviews on the vintage talk about it being well past peak.

Depends on how sensitive you are to sediment, but if you are standing up for several weeks, I would consider just opening mid day and let it breathe. I generally taste and if it is tight, I leave the cork off. You could also take it out of the cellar and let it slowly warm up to drinking temperature. If you are concerned about sediment, you could use a port filter and not pour the last couple of ounces, or double decant just before serving. Depending on the wine, however, you could lose it quickly. Good luck, enjoy.

Stand for a while.
Double decant - drink right away… should last for 2 hours without issue…
Have had the 79 margaux/haut brion/las cases/cos estournel
(also my birthyear!)

for Bordeaux you will get answers all across the board as far as when to open. DEFINITELY stand it up for a few days first and decant off the sediment either way. Personally, I prefer to give myself plenty of time to enjoy, take the first sip after about 30 minutes in the decanter, and follow it over the next couple hours as it opens up and evolves. What I’ve experienced mostly is that it will feel a little tired and smell pretty musty right outta the bottle but as long as your bottle and cork were good it’ll be much more expressive after about an hour.

Also, if you don’t have a Durand Id highly suggest it, but if you can’t get one, check out the “Audouze method” for opening the bottle (theres a couple good videos on youtube).

Unless there is travel involved, no reason at all to double decant.

  1. I think In a decanter it will fade faster
  2. In bottle, u might stir up sediment by accident when serving
  3. I generally like to serve out of bottle than decanter.
  4. All the 79s I’ve had have benefited from some air. But not a ton of air.

But otherwise. Yah no reason at all :wink:

1)It depends on the decanter shape.
2)I’m not totally against decanting, just not double decanting.
3)A personal preference.
4)See # 1

Otherwise I agree with you!

But if you are traveling there’s no reason to worry about double decanting. I’ve had quite a few 79s over the last 5 years and nome have fallen apart quickly.