So it’s Thursday, the day of the week when people “throwback” and remember days gone by. This morning, it got me thinking about the time when my husband and I learned the hard way about decanting. Although I had been drinking and enjoying wine for 20 years by the time I met him, I really never got into the real, deep reds that require aeration. I just stuck to simple, drinkable wines you get at the local store. But once we began enjoying wine together we got more adventurous.
Fast forward to a few months before our wedding when we decided to get an Opus One for our wedding night. I had always wanted to try it and figured it was as good an occasion as any. When we arrived at the local liquor store, the salesperson said that this Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon he had was WAY better in his opinion. It was a bit less expensive, too, so we figured, why not? There’s always a milestone anniversary to drink the Opus.
On our wedding night we were so excited to finally be home and opening our treasure. We poured it, took a sip and both made faces. It wasn’t that great at all. Kind of tasted like dirt, actually. We were so bummed. We blamed the salesperson for talking us into it in the first place, ordered a pizza and got to work opening our gifts. When the pizza arrived, about an hour had passed. We figured we’d just slam the wine and open something else we like better. We took a sip and actually thought the wine was pretty good! Why? Because it had time to aerate.
Hard lesson learned…always decant the big, complex reds. We now have a decanter and two special aeration pouring devices. We haven’t made the mistake since!