Do you decant Champagne?

Yes. It depends on the wine. I always decant the Cedric Bouchard Pinot Blanc, the Vouette et Sorbée Saignee, some of the Collin wines. Plenty of others…

I never decant Champagne but I open the bottle at least 30 min bevor pouring into glasses. Sometimes longer.

Funny, I visited Cedric Bouchard at his estate a couple of years ago, and he recommended this, with some kind of outlandish statement like “I feel like the bubbles just get in the way. If you want to really taste an amazing wine, decant this and drink it the next day.”

The ironic thing is that he’s a Champagne producer who appears to really disagree with the fundamental precept of what Champagne is. I drink Champagne FOR the bubbles, not DESPITE them. I like Champagne that way. There is plenty of great still wine in the world, but I gravitate to Champagne for a reason…and it’s not (purely) because of the terroir. “It’s the bubbles, stupid!”

Anyway, the answer is that I would never decant an entire bottle, but solely for “educational purposes” I often intentionally leave about 1.5 glasses in the bottle, and stick it back in the fridge to “revisit” the next day (preferably early in the day if possible). I do sometimes enjoy the stage where the bubbles have diminished significantly (say 70% gone). However, just as often I discover that without the bubbles the wine feels out of balance either too tart or too sweet to enjoy…To date, I have NEVER tried a glass after the bubbles are completely gone that I enjoyed MORE than the actual Champagne with bubbles.

If a newly-opened Champagne does appear to be overwhelmed by the bubbles, I will just let the glass sit for 20-30 minutes before consuming. Usually in that case, by the time of the second or third glass, the remaining wine in the bottle has also settled down.

Nice, Mr. Morris. I think decanting Champagne is counter-intuitive. And thank you very much for the slight. pileon

Philipponnat decants all of their wines. CdG benefits hugely from it. Had a 2004 last week and it transformed over the course of two hours and only for the better.

I usually don’t actually decant but I do open multiple bottles of different champagnes, end up drinking half of each early on and the rest later in the night (at an offline or dinner party, not usually alone). The second half wines are usually much better (and also goes to show that Champagne isn’t just a cocktail before the real wine/food wine).

I learned my lesson about giving young Champagne air at a tasting of the 1988 Winston Churchill on release. I was at a free tasting sponsored by 67th Street Wine with guest, Pol Roger proprietor Christian de Billy. Everyone else drank quickly. I kept my WC in the glass for an hour. It transformed into the magical wine it was / still is. There have been countless experiences since where Champagne needed significant air to show its best.

I see (potentially) decanting young (or even older) Champagne within that paradigm. As I said, I haven’t decanted older champagne but have drunk middle aged decanted Clos des Goisses and it seriously benefits from air, as discussed by others above.

Always. Decant directly into a Champagne glass and enjoy!

What would be your suggestion for the '02 Churchill?

Last Champagne I decanted was an 08 Pol Roger rosé. It was too tight and cold on pop and pour. About 45min in a captain’s decanter helped tremendously with aromatics, body, length- there was no noticeable loss in fizzzz.

I find it odd that people feel they are losing bubbles while decanting young champagne- I found an abandoned, post-party, backyard bottle of V&S Blanc d’Argile that was left a open for 24hrs- For science, I took a pull, it didn’t seem to lose any bubbles and was quite spectacular… I drank it later that night after 30+ hours open and it was way better than the day before.

I will pm you my home address. I accept all forms of shipment.

I agree with all this. Including how great ‘08 Pol Roger Rose is.

I am much more likely to do this - let the wine sit for a while in a glass - than to decant the whole bottle. Maybe an illusion, but I feel like I have more control that way.

Interesting thread.

My actual answer is “Only when I am serving Comtes blind at a LBTG dinner and you guys will know it immediately from the bottle shape, so I had no choice.” But you did not include that choice, so I had to lie.

I’d decent heavier wines if I opened them too young. But I tend not to because I wait.

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I’m like this, except I open the bottle earlier and let it stand longer, after pouring a small tasting glass. In general I feel the fruit qualities can become a lot more expressive, giving the wine depth and dimension I often don’t detect when its poured immediately upon opening. Like pizza and lasagna, I often find that Champagne improves after a night in the 'fridge.

Another approach, if your dining à deux (or pouring from magnum) is to pour a couple of glasses before the meal, to enjoy the wine’s fizzy freshness, then finish with second round after the meal, with desert (or as desert). It’s a bonus pleasure to observe the wine’s evolution over the period of an hour or two.