Why do we decant? 

It’s not just the act of pouring liquid from one container to another that accounts for the magic of decanting. Rather, when you decant a bottle of wine, two things happen. First, slow and careful decanting of older wine allows wine to separate from its sediment. These sediments if left mixed in, will give a bitter, astringent flavor and ruin a well preserved wine.

Second, when you pour wine into a decanter especially a younger wine, the resulting movement forces the wine to mix with oxygen. This enables the wine to develop its taste and come to life at an accelerated pace.

How to decant 
Decanting a young wine is easy. Just pour the wine into the decanter, let it sit for twenty to thirty minutes before serving and you will notice an increase in its subtlety and complexity. If you have time, drink it for hours and it will most likely keep evolving and improving.

Decanting older wine requires more care and time. To explain, older wine has had plenty of time to age and does not need any artificial boost. You may ruin it if you overexposing it to oxygen before serving, which is very often the case. With that in mind, older wine should be decanted immediately before serving,so no changes in its structure begin to occur.

To add to that, there is still the issue of how to separate a wine from its sediment. The easiest and most common procedure is to stand the wine bottle upright for a few days before opening it, this way all the sediment collects at the bottom. This is by far the easiest way if you can make up your mind a day in advance.

Decanting Whiskey

Whiskey, a spirit, matures very differently than wine. In fact the maturing process is stopped when bottled and keeping it for a long time will in no way affect its flavor.

Nevertheless decanting Whiskey has a story of its own and it dates back hundreds of years. Back then whiskey bottles were not as they are today, their shape resembled more that of a wine bottle and were full of imperfections. More often than not, these had to travel miles in the bottom of a ship where they collected dirt, lost their label and had a risk of developing mold on their cork stoppers.

For that reason once a Whiskey was acquired, it was poured into a crystal vessel where it would not mature its flavor but rather be displayed in a beautiful way. Some of that tradition is maintained today, a whiskey decanter not only get rid of the labeling and bias towards a brand but it also serves as a beautiful decorative piece.