How to distinguish good red wine from bad? How long should you decant the red wine in advance?

Red wine has been tasted and chosen by more and more friends. It is a symbol of status and taste. Listening to classical music and shaking the red wine ready to be decanted, life is so comfortable! Today, I will mainly share about how to distinguish good and bad red wine, how long in advance to decant red wine, and the correct way to decant red wine. Isn’t it great!

Contents of this article

1. How to distinguish the quality of red wine

2. How long in advance should you decant red wine?

3. The correct way to sober up red wine

How to distinguish good and bad red wine

It can be distinguished by the following aspects: first, look at the color. Good red wine has a transparent and lustrous color and a clear body. Second, smell the smell. Good red wine has a wine aroma, while bad red wine has a pungent smell of alcohol. Third, taste the flavor. Good red wine will go through the process of sour, sweet, bitter and astringent.

When you get the red wine, don't open it first. Turn the bottle upside down, tilt it at a certain angle, and look at the bottom of the bottle towards the sunlight or light to see if there is any sediment. If there is no or only a small amount of transparent sediment, it is normal. If there is too much, it is abnormal.

After opening the bottle, you can pour an appropriate amount of red wine into the glass, shake it evenly, and observe whether the wine flows down the wall of the glass evenly. The thicker the wine, the slower the flow rate, which means the better the quality of the wine. This method is called hanging on the glass.

In addition to the above methods, you can also drop two to three drops of red wine onto a paper towel and observe the traces left after the red wine is absorbed by the paper towel. If a uniform red-purple color is left, it means the wine is good. On the contrary, if the color is uneven or lighter, it means the wine is not good.

How long to decant red wine

Red wine needs to be decanted half an hour in advance. During the decanting process, pour the red wine into the decanter and wait patiently for half an hour. When storing red wine, place it upside down in the wine cabinet and maintain the temperature at around 12 degrees. If the red wine is found to have a damp or sweet taste, it means it has deteriorated and is not suitable for drinking.

1. Sobering up time

Generally, red wine that is two to three years old needs to be decanted half an hour in advance. Just pour the wine directly into the decanter and wait patiently. Red wine that is more than 20 years old needs to be decanted five minutes in advance. The decanting time should not be too long, so as not to weaken the flavor of the wine.

2. Saving method

When storing red wine, the bottle should be placed upside down on the wine rack to keep the cork moist and isolate the air. The temperature of the storage environment should be maintained between ten and fourteen degrees, and the humidity should be seventy percent. No items with peculiar smell should be stored around the wine rack to prevent them from seeping into the wine.

3. Judgment method

To determine whether the red wine has gone bad, you can taste it and look at its color. Well-preserved red wine has a strong aroma and a natural color, but heated red wine will have a sweet taste, be brown in color, and have a protruding cork. Moldy red wine will have a damp smell from a basement and taste astringent.

The correct way to decant red wine

Before decanting the red wine, it needs to be placed upright because red wine is usually stored at an angle. Therefore, the bottle needs to be placed upright for 30 minutes before decanting. Then cut the wine cap, wipe it with a clean wet cloth, use a corkscrew to pull out the cork, and then use filter paper to filter the wine.

1. Restore upright position

Before decanting red wine, you first need to put it upright. Red wine is stored at an angle during storage, so the impurities in the wine will be mixed with the wine during the upright process. At this time, you need to put the red wine upright for 30 minutes and wait for the impurities to settle to the bottom.

2. Remove the cork

When decanting red wine, cut the wine cap, then wipe the bottle mouth with a clean damp cloth, then wipe off the moisture with a paper towel, and then use a long spiral drill corkscrew to pull out the wine cork completely. Be careful not to break the cork during the pulling process.

3. Filter the precipitate

When decanting red wine, you need to prepare filtering tools, then pour the clear part of the bottle through the light source below, and filter it with filter paper. Do not stand the bottle upright during the decanting process, as this may cause impurities in it to mix into the red wine.