I was trying to pick out a wine today that I'd be able to bring to a favorite BYO. (Aquila for those interested, in New Providence)

In the end, I made the decision to bring a wine that showed very well just after opening... Not very tannic, nice bright fruit immediately on the palate,etc.etc.

At other dinners where I have had time to decant before hand I didn't have so much trouble picking a wine. This morning it took a good 15 minutes of staring .... before I settled *cough* on a WS 93 pointer.

Ended up picking the '99 Spellitich CS for $35.

What other young wines 1999 or younger, are good drinking right out of bottle?? (or within reason, at max, 30 minutes)

I bet people can mention a lot of cheaper wines that aren't built to age, what about some more expensive ones also?

What about the decant / pour back into the bottle trick?

also, hot date there Mr. Revlis??

Rev,

I hope somebody doesn't shoot me for this but I thought the 1999 Hanna Cabernet Sauvignon at $25.00 a bottle was very good QPR at 30 minutes opened in the bottle.

'00 Spring Valley Uriah.

stemor,

You know, one of these days, I might actually see a bottle of Spring Valley Uriah. Any vintage will do.

Welcome to the great wine inhibited State of Texas!

Yup , WIML is right. The Spring Valley Uriah is nowhere in Texas as far as I can tell.

Why would anybody shoot you for drinking Hanna, that is a good wine IMHO. I also like the Simi @ $15. WS actually does a good job at picking QPR wine I think. It's the big numbers that I hear all of the complaints about.

TCK

TCK,

I don't know. It seems I get into more trouble recommending wines than anything else. Just a little gun shy.

I think people freak out way too much about decanting. Many wines taste just fine by pulling the cork, pouring, and swirling in glass.

Jones,

I don't. I drink most of mine that way. Since I mostly drink CA Cab, AU Shiraz and Bordeaux I usually only decant very young bottles that I am considering for large purchases and laying down in the cellar. I usually do not decant older wines for fear they will fade very fast in the decanter. My motto is "grip and rip" just like I play golf.

I find that if I don't decant most young wines, and do as you suggest, Jones, I usually will consume the wine before it hits its stride. Nothing like taking the last sip and realizing that all the ones before it were a waste. As most of my wines are fairly young, I decant every chance I get.

And no, I don't drink them like a college kid at a kegger.

jb

The question is whether one's appreciation of the wine "hitting its stride" is due to aeration or merely the tasters extra sensitive taste buds due to the alcohol consumed prior to the wine hitting its stride.

I'm pretty sure I can tell the difference between the 2. I am only talking about young wines here. Although, I must admit almost all my dessert wine TN's should be taken w/ a large pile of salt.

jb

I agree with Jones,

Much of the evolution a wine displays is due to our senses adapting and focusing on the things that we either liked or disliked on our previouse sip. Like a homing missle our tasting apparatus zeroes in on diffrent aspects of the wine that were perceived throughout the tasting experience. Not to say that decanting has no effect on wine, I just think it gets for to much hype.

TCK

There's a wine made from a very obscure grape that you've probably never heard of. It's called, ZINFANDEL!

I rarely decant. I am too impatient. However, it has benefited me at , namely some of the wines I had with Vino Me, Dr. T and tanninpig back at an offline in DC in September. The old decant and pour it back in the bottle trick worked great there for that one Italian -- 5 hours of decanting made for an incredible experience.

I suppose I have a personal threshold where I decide to not decant or to decant. The threshold considers price, critical review, and age (in no particular order).

If I don't have the time to decant, I won't open a '97 Dominus - but rather something cheaper and more approachable.

My preference is to decant since many of the wines I am trying now need it. Plus, I think my preferences have changed from enjoying tannic monsters to preferring elegant, structured beauties.

I actually find it hard to believe that a couple people don't seem to think decanting does very much. One suggests maybe since alcohol has been consumed it makes your taste buds more sensitive. The other suggests it's your senses that are adapting to what we like or dislike in a wine.

But I must disagree almost completely.

One of my absolute favorite things to do with a wine is to consume it over as long a period as possible. Often times I'll open a bottle at 6pm and slowly drink over the next 5,6,or 7 hours because I get giddy with delight at how a wine can change over that time period. That doesn't always mean the wine gets better though, that's for sure. For instance, you MUST drink the Cambria '99 Syrah within the first 1/2 hour or it gets over oxidized and terrible. The '85 Laurel Glen had a wonderful nose out of bottle, but took a good two hours to reach it's peak, just to quickly fade at three hours. I was stupid enough to open two Sandrone '98 Le Vigne's so early in life.... both were just really getting going at the end of it's life, while another bottle I was having with one (a Rubino that I had high expectations for), never seemed to change much at all. If one bottle was going to change in such a glorious way due to my taste buds becoming more sensitive, or my senses adapting, I'd think both would change. Not just one.

Anyhow, that idea is silly. It's like saying aging a bottle doesn't do anything. ** RAR **

I for one decant nearly every wine I drink. There are two primary reasons for this. Mostly I decant to give young wines time to air out a little, most of what I am drinking is young so this is the primary reason. Another is for removing the wine from the sediment either young or old. In tasting nearly every wine from decanters it also helps me give wines an equal opportunity to be judged by me on equal playing fields. Decanting is not a big deal for me therefore I do it nearly everytime. I agree that many wines do just fine strait from the bottle and do not require any decanting. Plus I really enjoy visually seeing the entire bottle of wine in the decanter.

Silly? Parker on decanting (Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide, Sixth Ed. 2002 ("Parker"), p.12):

"Most people tend to think that the wine must be opened and allowed to "breathe" well in advance of serving. Some even think a wine must be decanted, a rather elaborate procedure, but not essential unless sediment is present in the bottle and the wine has to be poured carefully off. With respect to breathing or airing wine, I am not sure anyone has all the answers. Certainly, no white wine requires any advance opening and pouring. Red wines can be enjoyed within 15-30 minutes of being poured ... There are of course examples that can always be cited where the wine improves for 7-8 hours, but these are quite rare"

"[E]xcessive airing of Burgundy by decanting often causes it to lose its bouquet and become flaccid and formless" (Parker p. 420.)

People's impressions of a wine improving as it airs are often colored because as the evening progresses the taster has consumed alcohol. Additionally, the wine may "improve" as a result of it coming up to proper drinking temperature from cellar/refrigerator temperature. Frankly, I think far more wine is killed by an excessively long sojurn in a decanter prior to consumption then helped.