another wine decanting thread..
 

didnt want to hijack shawn's thread.

just wondering..i love "misusing" items. i was wondering. would a big Erlenmeyer or Florence flash (remember high school chemistry?) work as a decanter? maybe not enough air surface exposure, huh?

i use a huge chem beaker (holds maybe 1.5 gallons) to store my wine corks..

what do you think? stupid?

I have seen earthenware jugs used as a decanter. Any pour-able (a key feature) container with a large surface exposed at a 750ml level.

Fancy ones don't make a wine taste any better.

Ian

An erlenmeyer flask should work just ducky. In fact, pretty much anything a bubbler will do you can accomplish by swirling the wine in a proper wine glass.

I think an erlenmeyer would actually be pretty darned cool... would it be cost effective buying one large enough to decant? I seem to remember labware being quite pricey...

Erlenmeyer is what you want and 1.5L is the size. That is what I use. A lot cheaper than the BS stuff the "industry" pushes on people.

It has the secondary benefit of freaking out the foo-foo wine people who are "in it" for the prestige or something.

I just took a poke around, looks like you could get a 2L for under $20 or a 5L for around $50. Cool!

http://www.labdepotinc.com/Product_Details~id~327~pid~12908.aspx

I like it - care to post the link?

Just don't buy used...

Hmmmmm I wonder how a Martinellies apple juice jug would work?

let's do this? bay area group buy? hahaha.

your local college student can get you one at the campus Chem. Stores - cheap.

Don't any of you watch Breaking Bad? You want a boiling flask!

An old Clorox jug would be free. And unbreakable.

The traditional use of decanting is to leave sediment in the bottle of wine. Since the majority of wines today are sterile filtered and consumed young, there is little need for this step.

The secondary benefit of decanting a fine wine, and the primary use of it today is to increase oxygenation of the wine by exposing as much of the surface area of the wine to air. The act of pouring the wine into the neck of the decanter exposes most of the wine to air. Then a wide-base decanter can increase the surface area of the wine exposed to air.

I use a decanter like this one:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1276040141.jpg

A 750ml just reaches the very widest point to maximize surface area. This decanter is only $35 on Wine Enthusiast.com; you can throw more money at it if you want but it is not necessary.

Our wines really benefits from an hour of air exposure - it goes from great to fantastic. We advise our customers to open the bottle an hour before dinner, take a sip and remember the taste. Decant the wine OR just pour it into glasses and see the difference - it's amazing.

So you don't NEED a decanter, but some wines really benefit from the air exposure. I like the idea of an Erlenmeyer flask and will have to get one!

One thing about the venturi aerators is they really introduce rather violent turbulence into the wine. I wonder if it might break apart long protein chains (similar to post-bottling bottle shock we see in Pinot) that take time to reassemble in an undisturbed bottle. I have one but rarely have used it.

it is clear who the chem nerds are..:)

JP got me a fantastic decanter. i just want to think outside the box a tiny bit.

The best way to spend wine money - except on the juice itself - is on some good wine glasses. Although you might choke at the price, proper Riedel (or equivalent) wine glasses are worth every penny imho.

Ian

I would use a new Erlenmeyer..... But I am a chem nerd... In fact I just ordered a shower curtain with the Periodic table on it!


Just be sure to get a NEW flask....

what if you acid wash it until you get 0 ppt on all your tests???

I will admit to a Chem degree, but it was an undergrad degree and long, long ago.

Theoretically it would be fine... I'm scared of what the acid residue might do to the wine... They aren't that much $$.... Why risk it?