Hospitality Winemaking Jordan Garden Wine Service Art of Wine Decanting

Fine wines deserve the best possible presentation, and the time-honored ceremonies that surround the serving of such wines bring people together in the oldest tradition of civilized man: that of hospitality.

A well made red wine will generally taste good poured straight from the bottle, but it will taste even better - and the drama will be heightened - if decanted through a silver wine funnel into a graceful crystal decanter, and then sipped from the thinnest of stemmed crystal glasses. The gleam of silver, the sparkle of fine crystal and the ruby color of the wine combine to heighten anticipation.

However, decanting red wine is done for practical reasons as well as aesthetic ones. It was Louis Pasteur who first discovered the effect that air can have on wine, and his observations lie behind the practice of decanting wine before serving it. The air in a decanter helps accelerate the full flowering of the wine's aroma and flavor. This benefits young, closed wines enormously. Noble old vintages also benefit, and decanting holds back sediment and prevents it from getting into wine glasses.

Silver wine funnels first came into wide use during the second half of the 18th Century, and are enjoying a renaissance today. A true wine funnel has a cranked spout, that is, it is curved near the tip to deflect wine down the sides of a decanter and thus expose it to more oxygen.

It is essential that wine decanters be very clean: they must be washed and thoroughly dried between uses. A weighted decanter pole stand allows thorough air drying in an upside down position.