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Double Decanting
I recently saw this, apparently a trick used by Robert Parker. I've never seen it done in Europe, but I'm not sure if it is common in the US. In the interest of posterity, I'll post it.
This is a trick for fine/older wines with sediment. Often, inexperienced guests will pour their wine incorrectly and accumulate a large amount of sediment in their glass, or distribute the settled sediment around the wine bottle. This ruins the wine (although sediment is healthy). To avoid this, many decant their wine into a decanter, which also helps the wine breath. However, this means that the guests cannot see what wine they are drinking because the decanters lack labels.
To remedy this, Double Decant.
1) Clean out decanter with water, smell to ensure that it is clean.
2) After opening, wipe mouth of bottle with wet rag to remove dirt/dust. Not a step everyone performs, can contaminate wine.
3) Decant carefully, leaving the sediment in the shoulder of the bottle. May have to leave a bit of wine in the bottle to avoid pouring sediment into the decanter.
4) Wash wine bottle thoroughly with water. Try not to let water get on outside of the bottle and ruin the label (defeats purpose of exercise!).
5) Using a clean funnel, pour the wine from the decanter back into the bottle. If you need to let the wine breath, leave in decanter for a while before performing this step.
I have no clue how useful this trick is, but Parker is an expert on wines and it seems practical.
HTH,
Solid
*legal in the UK*
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