Happs & Three Hills - Why decant?

Why decant?

Some of the more pleasurable activities that we are fortunate to experience in this life, and hopefully the next, are best approached a little obliquely. This takes forethought and involves delay. Unfortunately, both forethought and delay are presently out of fashion. Hence this reminder.

The slam bam thank you Ma'am approach to red wine drinking is a case in point. It works quite satisfactorily with some youthful wines, striplings if you like, wines of light colour and slight body, but it can be disaster for a full bodied red, long on the skins in the making, and long in the bottle before it winds up in the hand of the impatient imbiber. As he/she strips the capsule and lines up the corkscrew it is well to remember that such a wine should be approached with understanding, skill and delicacy if the drinking experience is to be truly memorable.

A few pointers might enable a cautious and sensitive soul to convert a potential embarrassment into a culinary triumph. Rustic we may be, but this little cultural attainment is easy to acquire.

If the wine pours black in the glass, almost impenetrable to the eye, be cautious. That is the first sign. If you raise the glass to the nose and the aromas, while undoubtedly full of wholesome possibility, suggest at all the fragrance of earth or compost, then, that is the second sign. If you taste the wine and you are reminded at all of the taste of B.H.P. steel (rather metallic) then that is the third, rather pointed, warning.

I well remember a neighbour of years ago, a man of the law, who proudly informed me that he had drunk every Bordeaux first and second growth. Eager to seek his opinion I presented him with a bottle and was met with the inquiry as to how long it should breathe before serving. Somewhat taken aback I remembered that the wine generally showed better on the second than the first night so proffered the opinion that a couple of hours should suit. There was a man, accustomed to careful preparation, who knew how to order his pleasures.

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If the wine pours black in the glass then you know that the grapes have been well exposed to dappled light filtering through the leaves, the anthocyanins (colouring pigments) will be abundant, as will the tannins. This is achieved by careful vineyard design to reduce shoot densities in the canopy, and indicates a good match of vine to soil and appropriate but not abundant moisture supply. The fruit is likely, if ripening temperatures are appropriate, and picking suitably delayed, to have abundant berry flavour and plenty of alcoholic potential. If then, the wine maker is serious about his task, and loves red wine, he will employ warm temperatures and long skin contact, tying up his fermenters for at least a couple of weeks and generally raising costs and taking risks with determination. Then the young red wine will be black and tannic. However the tannins, while abundant, will be soft and the wine, while rather fiery, will truly contain all of the good things that a grape can give to red wine. The wine maker needs to know his grape, for not all grapes have the constitution to produce results. In the wrong circumstances i.e., high yields, grapes picked too early, too shady a canopy, the wine is mean and green. In that circumstance there is absolutely nothing you can do but grin and bear it, or throw it out.

What is abundantly clear from experience is that the big red needs air when it is first opened. It should be poured carefully from the bottle into a decanter of about twice the capacity so the wine has access to lots of air. Any sediment, and with age it will most assuredly be present, stays safely in the bottle. The decanter should be vigorously swirled, one way and then the other, so as to mix the wine and the air completely. This will wake up the wine after its long rest in the bottle. The decanter should be then set aside for at least ten minutes and preferably half an hour, to allow the air to do its work. The wine will then be ready. There will be violets and berries of all descriptions. Voile. You have done your bit.

Finally, remember that these red / black wines are at their best with food. Choose a softer wine for a casual drink. When you want something to accompany rice, a stir fry, pasta, steak, or simply bread, salad, cheese and olives, go for the red. In fact try it with anything but fish or curries. There is no better place to drink them than in the evening, after a swim watching the sun sink into the horizon as the waves roll in at Smiths Beach or Yallingup. If its a hot night, pre chill the wine in a bucket of sea water.