Why do you need to sober up before drinking red wine

Before drinking red wine, you must decant it so that the taste of the wine can become better. Decanting can also allow the red wine to fully come into contact with the air. Otherwise, it will be impossible to taste the real taste of the red wine. Therefore, people who know how to taste red wine will decant it before drinking.

The function of a decanter is to allow red wine to fully contact with the air. Red wine that has been stored for many years will have a strange fishy smell, and you will not be able to experience the real taste if you taste it directly. [1]

For aged red wine, tannins and pigments will form sediments over the long years of aging, which will not only be unsightly when poured into the glass, but will also produce a slight bitterness. So after opening the bottle, in principle the wine should be poured steadily and slowly into the decanter, leaving the sediment at the bottom of the bottle. This process is called decanting, commonly known as "changing the bottle".

For young red wine, the opening time of the decanter (including the flow process during injection) can allow a large area of ​​the wine to come into contact with the air (the decanter has larger space and opening), thereby accelerating the softening of tannins and fully releasing the enclosed aroma. This process is called sobering up, commonly known as "breathing". In addition, after "changing the bottle" for aged red wine, the sommelier will generally ask the customer for his opinion: Does it need to be decanted? The purpose is to allow the possible sulfide smell to dissipate as quickly as possible.

Before changing the bottle, please prepare a decanter, a funnel, and preferably a filter cloth to help filter out the cork fragments that flow out of the bottle. Do not use coffee filter paper as filter cloth to avoid leaving the smell of paper. Please prepare another light source, preferably a candle. [2]

When opening the bottle, be careful not to shake or turn it, as this can easily stir up the sediment in the bottle. Cut the bottle cap and tear it down as far as possible. Wipe the bottle mouth with a clean damp cloth and then dry with a napkin. When opening a bottle, use a long screw-pull corkscrew to completely pull out the cork, then carefully examine the bottom of the bottle through a light source to make sure that the sediment has not contaminated the liquid above.

When pouring wine, the person holding the bottle should keep their eyes in a vertical line with the bottle and the light source below the bottle, with the light source about 15 cm away from the decanter. To begin decanting, simply gradually tilt the bottle and allow the wine to slowly pour into the decanter. It takes about one minute to decanter a 750ml bottle of wine. After most of the wine has flowed out of the bottle, the wine holder can use the light source below to carefully control the pouring of the wine, pouring out only the clear liquid and discarding the chaotic sediment remaining in the bottleneck. Please do not stand the bottle upright during the decanting process, otherwise the sediment will immediately contaminate the clear liquid and it will be difficult to replenish.