Pouring a wine carefully from its bottle into a carafe is called decanting. Only two kinds of wine need to be decanted : very old red wines, which have formed a sediment in the bottle and heavy but still young red wines, which are improved by some air contact before they are served.

There are 2 practical reasons for decanting wine. One is to separate the wine from any deposit it may have thrown during its long maturation in the bottle; the other is to allow the wine to aerate or "breathe" (which means allowing the wine to come into contact with air). This encourages the development of the wine's bouquet and flavor. Pulling the cork out of the bottler and letting the bottle sit there is a truly ineffective way to aerate the wine. The little space at the neck of the bottle is way too small to allow your wine to breathe very much.

How to decant

	Stand the bottle upright 24 -48 hours before decanting. Uncork the bottle carefully. Hold the decanter at the neck of the bottle, and pour gently and steadily.
	As you get toward the last of the wine, you will see the sediment moving down toward the neck. Watch it closely; stop pouring just before the sediment leaves the bottle.
	If you do not have a steady hand, or want to extract the every last drop of wine, use a decanting funnel. Place the funnel in the neck of the decanter and pour the wine. The funnel will catch the sediment.

Tips for Decanting

• Young red wines especially those that are high in tannin such as Cabernet Sauvignons, many red Zinfandels, Bordeaux actually taste better with aeration because their tannins soften and the wine becomes less harsh.
• The younger and more tannin the wine is, the more time it needs to breathe. As a general rule, most tannic, young red wines soften up with one hour of decanting.
• The older the wine, the more delicate it can be. Don't give old, fragile-looking wines excessive aeration. The flavors of really old wines will start fading rapidly after 10 or 15 minutes of being exposed to air.
• There is no need to decant white wine. Prolonged exposure to air will spoil any fresh flavors.