We will continue to disagree. No worries.
While nothing is written in stone with very old wines. I agree with Charlie that many an old wine needs more air than you think. I’ve had 100 year old Bordeaux that take hours to ramp up. Also 70+ year old Burgundy and Barolo that needed tons of “air” time as well. I know at Berns, nothing is stood up. Everything is in a basket. I generally stand wines before drinking them. I believe, wether you stand or open from a basket, it is important to be gentle and keep the sediment at bay.
Oh and nice Willy Wonka reference again Mr Fu!
My experience aligns with Charlie’s…esp with old Barolos and old/70s CA cabs.
Another benefit of standing bottles up (applies to younger wines than we’re talking about here tho) is it gives the wine the chance to slowly release any (often much) dissolved CO2 in the wine, which can have a significant impact on the character of the wine. Before suggesting that decanting the wine…dissolved CO2 is very difficult to get out of solution when the wine is in the low 60s or cooler. I’m sure no one’s rushing to stand their bottles up, but thought I’d point this out anyways 
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Yes Tom, enjoy the whole show.
I am all in favor of standing up bottles, and you can use a flashlight to check how much sediment is in the bottle at that time.
Ron, my slightly edited post from a June 28 thread “sediment filters worth it?”:
“I don’t like sediment and used to carefully decant with a candle. It gives acceptable results but it’s needlessly fussy, IMO. I now use a double filter on every red wine I open and will never go back. Filter #1 is a Krups brand Melita-shaped reusable coffee filter with a gold-colored super-fine screen, and I place that inside Filter #2, a Binks Strain-It paint/varnish strainer with an equally fine mesh screen. Either one alone would probably be fine but I double up because what the hey. I put them inside a small stainless funnel for straining into a decanter. And I don’t bother pouring particularly carefully.
This is in no way similar to sterile filtering — the strained wine is clear as a bell but nothing I want is removed from the wine, and no unwanted flavors or aromas are added. The filters rinse clean without soap and last (so far) forever.”
So, off the shelf parts, no engineering or construction, absolutely no need for planning ahead [from horizontal in my wine cooler to in the decanter in a couple of minutes, and that includes opening the bottle], and great results. Plus, I now rescue that last mouthful or two that I used to have to dump when I decanted using a candle.
Nice Todd.
This is a bit of a non-sequitur. Decanting a wine to get it off the sediment and consuming it over several hours are not mutually exclusive.
Whether the first hour or so post-decanting is part of “the show,” or a not-very-enjoyable pre-show ritual of getting the stage set up for the show, tends to vary wine by wine.
There is gunk floating around in the wine. Stand the bottle up for a few days and the gunk will fall to the bottom. Then you can drink the wine from the top without the gunk.
Hmmm but
- Decanting for sediment doesn’t really change the performance.
- Some air makes many older wines better so unless the show is 5+ hours. Wouldn’t I want it to get closer to the peak when I’m ready to consume it?
I guess different strokes so personal preference goes!
I was surprised to see that Andremily advises to standup their young wines for a week or so to let that natural sediment settle since they are unfiltered unfined. Is this a common practice with younger unfined and unfiltered wines?
C Fu is it possible to explain the method? Is the sediment in the bottle rinsed out after decant then the wine poured back in? What if the sediment is stuck to the side of the bottle?
if the sediment is stuck so hard to the bottle that a rinse and shake can’t get it out, it won’t be impacting my wine enjoyment anyways. But I typically try my best to clean the bottle thoroughly. I can’t think of the last time there’s been a bottle where the sediment is absolutely stuck. Nothing a chopstick can’t handle.
A quick rinse and maybe a little shake has always worked for me; like Charlie, I’ve never had tenaciously stuck sediment.
I’m understanding this up to the point where you try to open it while it’s on its side . . .
?
If you have some crusty sediment, I find that warm water usually breaks it free. Give it a good swirl in the bottle and it all comes out.
I started with a triage area with maybe 12 bottles standing up. Over the years its grown to where I have a several cases of bottles standing, ready to go without any advance planning. I haven’t noticed any issues with premature aging, ullage, or corks recessing into bottles. I store many, many bottles on their sides or even upside down. But the longer I do this, the more I wonder if I storing standing up isn’t the problem we think it is.
Oh no. Not that thread again. And just after we all came to a general consensus here. 
In a cradle or makeshift cradle using some towels to keep the wine below the neck. I tried a couple of cradles and they were too rickety, so I’ve been using towels. But I just got a new cradle to try, so we’ll see.
Exactly.