CellarKeeper
Sarasota, FL
Grape Fermenter
Posts:430
 | | 05/17/2005 1:44 AM |
| I thought the purpose of standing a bottle up was to have the sediment collect in the bottom. So why wood you use this before decanting or to decant?  | | | |
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Chris
Grape Sorter
Posts:246
| | 05/17/2005 1:49 AM |
| As if the photo isn't funny enough on its own, just read the description.
Thanks for the giggle, CK. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:11169
| | 05/17/2005 2:09 AM |
| | What's funny is that the bottle in the cradle is upside down, but cradles do serve a function. A good cradle will enable decanting more accurately than can be done by hand with no back and forth swishing of the wine stirring up sediment. No, I don't own one, but leaving an older wine in one for a few days before decanting would probably result in a greater volume of sediemtn free decanted wine, provided the cork was carefully extracted. | | | |
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CellarKeeper
Sarasota, FL
Grape Fermenter
Posts:430
| | 05/17/2005 2:47 AM |
| | I thought it was a little weird with the bottle neck facing down. I've seen it the otherway around but thought this was something different with the crank and all??? | | | |
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Chris
Grape Sorter
Posts:246
| | 05/17/2005 2:59 AM |
| I concur. I'm not knocking the functionality of the thing, just the silliness of the upside down bottle... and that hand crank. Please. That three sentence description has more misspellings and grammar mistakes than even most of my posts. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:11169
| | 05/17/2005 3:03 AM |
| | I don't know why you're knocking the hanmd crank. That hand crank is responsible for the efficiency of the apparatus. | | | |
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David Niederauer
Los Gatos, CA
Master Sommelier
Posts:15753
| | 05/17/2005 4:39 AM |
| Board_O is right on.
The hand crank lets one tilt the bottle ever so slightly to let the wine flow out the neck.
Start with the bottle right side up. Let it sit a day or two. Pull the cork out moving the bottle as little as possible. Put the trusty candle behind the neck and start cranking. You control the flow with the crank.
I had one of these things maybe 20 years ago. I haven't seen it for 19 years. It is probably somewhere in the garage or not. May have made it to a rummage sale somewhere and sold for $1. | | | |
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JimmyV
Central Connecticut
Wine Connoisseur
Posts:5066
| | 05/17/2005 1:22 PM |
| | I was at a restaurant that used one of these. I ordered an older bottle that was sure to have some sludge. But since restaurants don't have the luxury of standing bottles up for a few days, they had to bring my bottle straight from the cellar. To prevent stirring up the muck they carried the wine in awine basket , making sure that the bottle stayed in the same horizontal position as it was in the cellar. The bottle was then transferred to one of these hand cranky things with a candle underneath, and decanted ever so slowly by turning the hand crank. It was quite a performance, and the results were perfect. I wouldn't be so quick to laugh at this medieval looking contraption. It is a far steadier way of slow-pouring than your hand can ever achieve. The only diffficult thing was gently removing the cork while the bottle stayed almost horizontal. I imagine that this takes some practice. | |
Beta testing a new signature. | |
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Chris
Grape Sorter
Posts:246
| | 05/17/2005 3:35 PM |
| Jimmyv-
I'm sure it was quite a performance. I, too, observed a similar process when we last dined at Le Bec Fin in Philly. You make a vey good point about having to delicately remove the cork too. I'll never look at a hand crank again with ridicule. I guess my reaction was promulgated by the fact that it'll be a long time before I'll ever likely need such an apparatus. My collection (and hobby) is so new and budget so limited and I don't typically drink such old and delicate wines like our esteemed colleagues in this forum. My grandfather Vito used to make about 200 gallons of wine each year and I was his helper as a young kid. His solution for separating the wine from sediment was a syphon hose stuck in the bottle a few inches from the bottom of the bottle and syphon the wine into another bottle leaving the sludge behind sort of like racking beer in homebrewing. Crude but effective. I'm tempted to get one of those things and use it with an everyday wine just to get a reaction from my wife. She'll probably conclude that I've gone over the edge with my new obsession. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:12891
| | 05/17/2005 7:42 PM |
| | the concept is a very good one, but as david pointed out to me last week, if you have steady hands this is a waste of money for anything smaller than a 3l. | | | |
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dbw4
Grape Puncher
Posts:902
| | 05/18/2005 1:58 PM |
| Yeah, nice device. Except I would screw this up because I would bounce up the stairs from the cellar with excitement and anticipation of drinking my "special wine".
DBW | | | |
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Edward Bowers
Palm Beach Gardens
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2072
| | 05/21/2005 3:12 PM |
| | I have seen this done at a couple swanky places in Palm Beach. They use what looks like a Krups Gold coffee filter, and pour the wine through that. Traps a lot of particles. Quicker too. | | | |
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David Niederauer
Los Gatos, CA
Master Sommelier
Posts:15753
| | 05/21/2005 9:23 PM |
| AAAAAACHKKK! Never use a coffe filter or anything close to it. I say never use any kind of filter at all. Filtering a wine will take tastes both good and bad out of a wine.
And for goodness sake don't pour the wine through a metal filter/strainer.
Theres a rant-thread on this somewhere. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:11169
| | 05/21/2005 10:42 PM |
| | I never filter decanted wine. I will sometimes take the small amount that remains in the bottom of the bottle and filter it to help determine when the decanted wine should be served. | | | |
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