More specifically, what's the best way to clean the bottle before refilling it with the wine that's been decanted ?

I'm taking some 20 year old+ CA cabs to a tasting next week. The wine has been standing in my cellar for the past week or so. I'll be driving about an hour to the tasting, so I want to double decant before leaving my house.

I've seen a few suggestions in other threads ...

- Rinse the bottle - with water or ?

How do you dry the bottle before refilling it ? I don't want to airdry it, as that will likely take too much time. I want to minimize the decanted wine's exposure to air as much as possible before beginning the tasting.

- Shake the bottle

I can see how this will get rid of any chunks of sediment, but what about the fine coating left on the inside of the bottle ?

Any other suggestions ? or am I worrying too much about this ?

Thanks,
Scott

Scott, First, welcome.

Quote:

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or am I worrying too much about this ?

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I know I will be scolded by somebody else here but I would say yes.

A think double decanting would be perfect for what you want to do.

The overkill for me is worrying about any tiny bit of water that might be left in the decanter before pouring a second wine into it. Just rinse the decanater with hot water; pour it out; let it sit for a minute and pour out the few more drops that have accumulated; and pour in the next bottle. The small amount of water left should not affect the wine.

Having no real personal experience with double decanting older wines, I'll go ahead and agree with Pops. I don't think the really tiny amount of water that would be left would be noticeable.

You could always speed up the drying time, though, with a blow dryer, couldn't you?

If you were to do one more thing beyond David's suggestion, it would be to do a second rinse with distilled water.

How about using a bottle that was already cleaned out a day or two before hand?

I think worrying too much is correct. I would just double decant as normal and not worry too much about anything else. A drop of water is not going to make a big difference. I would be careful with double decanting wines, though, that may not need it. By the time you get to the tasting, you could have water.

If I read his question correctly he wants to decant it and then pour it back into the bottle for a BYO.

i never worry about the little bit of water left in the bottle before i pour the wine back in. i think that air drying or using a hair dryer is way overkill.

agreed, anthony...

AI... Hair dryer. What's a hair dryer???

i guess yours sorta air drys, huh

Although I can guess.

Being a neurotic freak, I had the exact same concern re: left-over water so I actually tried the hair dryer method -- the heat cracked my decanter!

i would never think of using a hair dryer on one of my decanters, but on a bottle, that is adifferent story. but once again, only if you have OCD

Perhaps the hair dryer method was a bit shortsighted on my part then. I vote for ttepper's suggestion to just use another bottle that was emptied and dried previously, then.

Just rinse it out and put it back in the same bottle. I agree; OCD!

Thanks for all your thoughts. I won't worry about a little bit of water left in the bottle.

BTW, What's OCD ? All I can think of is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ...

...you got it