Decanting White Wines
By Mary Margaret McCamic MW | General Manager, Karolus Wine Imports
About ten years ago, I had dinner with my brother at a nice restaurant near San Francisco. I ordered a bottle of Nicolas Joly’s Savennières ‘Clos de la Coulée de Serrant’ and asked to have it decanted. The waiter looked at me as if I was insane. He left after telling me that he would have to check with the wine director before fulfilling my request.
As it turns out, the wine director was off that evening, and was actually sitting with friends at the table next to us. I witnessed the waiter go over, converse with a gentleman, and quickly return to our table. Instead of shock, he had a smile for me, and said that he told the wine director my request. “He said you must know the wine well, and of course we’d be happy to decant it for you.” Our bottle was decanted, enjoyed over the course of the evening, and there were glasses exchanged with the table next to us after I thanked the wine director for his appreciation of my request.
In hindsight, the waiter probably should have known that decanting a wine like Joly’s would be (more than) acceptable since after all, it was featured on the restaurant’s wine list, and because Joly’s wines are some of the most famous examples of white wine styles that benefit from extremely long decants. The importance of wine staff education aside, I’d like to focus on the positive ways the evening turned out. My brother, who before then was a self-declared “red wine drinker,” realized that complex, high quality, textural whites were actually delicious to him. The waiter learned something new and likely has utilized this piece of knowledge over the past decade. We enjoyed a beautiful bottle of white wine that benefitted greatly from its decant.
As I think back to that lovely evening, it strikes me that many wine lovers and collectors are still surprised when I suggest that they decant their white wines. “You can decant whites?” They ask. “Yes, of course!” I reply. “Many great whites benefit from the oxygen exposure of a decant.” I typically also add that too many wine lovers, especially in the United States, drink white wines far too cold. A decant not only allows the wine to open up aromatically and texturally, but it also can allow a white wine to increase in temperature, which further allows its aromatics to shine. That said, you can also decant a white wine near an ice bucket, and control its temperature by placing it on the table and back on ice as you see fit, monitoring it as you enjoy. (I should also add here that there are some white wines that throw sediment, just like red wines, and in this case a decant would allow the drinker to retain that sediment in the bottle rather than having it end up in someone’s glass!)
As always, I bring all of this up as it relates to Bonneau du Martray’s Corton-Charlemagne, a white wine, that most certainly benefits from decanting whether in its youth or as a wise, more mature Grand Cru white Burgundy. This is true of many complex and nuanced white wines. Just a few weeks ago, I decanted a bottle of 2017 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne, after tasting it first out of the bottle and finding its aromas a little more reserved than I preferred, and its body a little more streamlined. After about a half hour of decanting, those gorgeous, lifted floral and citrus notes, lemon curd and hints of vanilla leapt from the glass, and the texture of the wine transformed from something a little tight to something rounder and more generous.
I’ve decanted a bottle of the 2002 Bonneau du Matray Corton-Charlemagne recently, after opening it and finding it to show a touch more nuttiness than I’d expect from the vintage. Twenty to thirty minutes later, the almond skin smelled more of marzipan and crème brûlée, and the fruit components slightly fresher than they’d seemed before. I’ve done the same with bottles of 1991, 1994, and 2001 recently, which can vary slightly (as is only natural with wine, and part of the fun of opening different bottles of the same vintage). Each benefitted from the opportunity to get a kiss of air, open up, and reveal their true aromas and flavors after all that time sealed up in a bottle.
In fact, almost every bottle of great white wine that I’ve opened in the past year or two has been decanted, from a 2006 Hermitage Blanc to a 2014 Chevalier-Montrachet to German Rieslings from the 1970s and beyond! Aside from bottles that are quite old and quite delicate, that could fall apart with too much exposure to oxygen, I am of the mind that a gentle decant can be beneficial in many, if not most, cases.
So - go! Be not afraid to decant your white wines, especially young or middle-aged bottles like Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. There might be a person or two who gives you a strange look, but they are likely only a taste away from learning that decanting is not just an opportunity reserved for red wines.
Cheers!