An article came out today on Fox’s website about whether or not to decant, which we posted on our Facebook page. You can find the article here. I think there’s some good information, but also some incomplete.

I thought the comment in the article about decanting “older wines” was woefully incomplete. The author lists “older wines” as 15-years-old or more. The way I would handle a 15-year-old Napa Cab or Bordeaux is completely different than how I would handle a 50-year-old wine. For the average 15-year-old Cab (that deserved to be aged that long), decanting is sure needed, IMHO. But not the 50-year-old (or more).

For the record, I’m a disciple of the “slow oxygenation” method for old wines. I pop the bottle and leave it standing for 4-6 hours to let the bottle stink blow off. They I pour it easily from the bottle to not disturb the sediment. I’ve had fabulous luck with this on bottles that when first opened, you would have thought were dead.

What methods are you using?