- Joined
- Mar 11, 2015
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My opinion (based on 50 years drinking wine):
Shaking (aka the Mollydooker shake) is only for young wines that haven't thrown a crust. You have to pour out half a glass or so before shaking, in lieu of decanting. Shaking a wine with a crust turns it cloudy, affects the mouth feel and flavours due to the crust being distributed through the wine. We used to do this sometimes many years ago when tasting young wines in a group setting, if a particular wine was commented on as "closed". Sometimes it helped, mostly not and I've not used the technique in recent times, I usually have a decanter handy.
Decanting is to aerate the wine, and, for old wines, remove the sediment. Older wines that may have sediment should be stood upright for a couple of days before being moved gently to the decanting stage. When to decant (ie how long before drinking) is a black art, depending on the (age of and other characteristics) of the wine and personal preferences, for older wines I err on the side of brevity, some older wines can fade quickly in the decanter. If you decant a wine that has been lying down it can be difficult to decant without disturbing the sediment, depending on how tightly it clings to the glass or whether it is loose and settled.
I often don't decant young wines, sometimes use a pouring aerator, sometimes change my mind when tasting the first glass (if it's still "closed" after a few minutes in the glass) and see what aeration does to the wine. I've never used the blender method, but have used the microwave to warm a glass of very cold wine.
I almost always decant older cellared wines, usually within an hour of drinking, I prefer not to have the sediment in my drinking glass.
