Decanting and Serving RecommendationsUpdated 3 months ago

Each of our daily offers includes decanting and serving recommendations. Notes to these stories can be found as a link in your order history.

In general, the best approach is to store wine on its side in a dark and cold place until you want to drink it. At that point when you want to consume the bottle, stand the wine up 24-48 hours, also in a cool place like a cold garage or your wine cellar, at about 55F. This is especially important for wines that are 15 to 20 years old, or older.

When you want to open it carefully remove the cork using a simple corkscrew, and if you open older bottles on occasion we highly recommend using an "Ah-So" in case the cork is in bad shape. It grabs the cork from the sides so it won't crumble and get into the wine (if it did you could strain it through wine strainer or a coffee filter into a decanter or carafe).You can find an Ah-So wine opener on Amazon and Google a video on how to use it, it is great to have to open old bottles.

Most young red wine, up to 10 or 15 years of age, benefits from a decant of 30 to 60 minutes, and some may demand even longer. The point of decanting young reds is to help awaken the fruit and the aromatics, while softening the tannins a bit. Red wines between 15 and 30 years old may also benefit from decanting, both to remove the wine from the sediment and to help awaken aromas. However, some more delicate wines may not need decanting at these ages, including some Red Burgundy or other Pinot Noirs. Older wines generally do not need decanting, and in some cases, decanting may cause them to decay rapidly. The exceptions are robust wines, like Bordeaux or Napa Cabernet, from the very best vintages. Vintage Port should always be decanted away from its sediment.

White wines of any age don’t generally require decanting, however young bottles from top regions like White Burgundy, Mosel Riesling, or Loire Chenin Blanc usually benefit greatly from a short decant. Dessert wines of any age also generally benefit from decanting, especially fortified ones like Madeira or Marsala.

The most important aspect of wine service is temperature, followed by stemware. If your wine is at the right temp and in the right glass you will have a far more enjoyable experience. No wine should ever be warm, the max temp is 65 degrees, and that is for only the most robust red wines, and/or older bottles. Too cold is also a problem, as it will mask all of the complexities. The coldest a wine should be served at is 45 degrees, for simple white wines and sparkling wines, while most white wine is best around 50 degrees and most reds shine in the 55 to 60-degree range. 

You really only need three types of stemware: An all-purpose stem, a Burgundy bowl stem, and a Bordeaux stem. The all-purpose stem is perfect for sparkling wines, most rosé, and lighter, low-aromatic white wines. The Bordeaux stem is for robust red wines, while everything else, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir etc. should go into the Burgundy stem. 

For any specific questions on wine service don’t hesitate to reach out to our customer service team.