Decanting wine through a coffee filter

[Steve Slatcher]

I rarely bother letting a bottle stand vertically. I just transfer, horizontally and gently, from my "cellar" (actually a wine fridge) to "decanting cradle" (actually a bowl that will firmly hold the bottle at a low angle from the horizontal), remove the cork, and gentle decant. It always works for me.

[Bill Spohn]

Any older bottles likely to have sediment are almost invariably stood up on the sideboard for a day before decanting, so no sediment issue.

I agree that with a good vintage Port, anything you can do to save the last glass is worth doing. I'll sometimes run that glass through the gold plated coffee filter.

I'm not a fan of letting anything but glass near wine I intend to drink, otherwise.

[Glenn Mackles]

Like others here I have often used paper coffee filters to filter many kinds of wine with no problems and great results.

Best to all,
Glenn

[Bob Parsons Alberta]

I too have used coffee filters but Anastasia wonders if ladies tights might work too!
How about muslin, used for straining consomme?

[Paul Savage]

David,

I used a generic Stop & Shop paper filter as I recall. Maybe other brands might work better with old Burgs? But in general, now I avoid decanting older wines altogether, as I like the results with the "slow-O" approach better. Young wines might need the extra aeration though.

But different types (and ages) of wines will behave differently, and likely have different sorts of sediment as well. Port, for instance, often has big clumpy sediment and often you don't have to filter that either, just pour very slowly when decanting. ...Paul

[Jenise]

I too have used coffee filters but Anastasia wonders if ladies tights might work too!

Tell her 'Nude' might work, but 'Suntan' is a big no.

[Bob Parsons Alberta]

The "Nude" color, now you are talking!

[Oliver McCrum]

I find that bottles that have been left upright for at least a few hours decant very well without any kind of filter, so I never use one. I would be concerned that some good flavors would be absorbed by a coffee filter, too, but I don't know this is true.

[Dale Williams]

As previously noted, my preferred method is standing up in advance, and just using traditional candle method to decant (confess I'm jealous of a friend with an installled upward pointing LED in cellar)

I do think that bottles with likelihood of bottle funk benefit from early opening/slow ox, though that method surely predates M. Winedinners.

But the coffee filter way is a good way to not waste what is left after the sediment appears and you stop pouring. Cheesecloth and metal filters work too, though get less of the truly fine sediment.

I see no reason to filter most bottles through anything. But have never really noticed any delitorious effects from any filtering, But freely admit I'm not the most physically gifted taster. If anyone wants to "try their luck". happy to set up a test.

[Jenise]

As previously noted, my preferred method is standing up in advance, and just using traditional candle method to decant (confess I'm jealous of a friend with an installled upward pointing LED in cellar)

I do think that bottles with likelihood of bottle funk benefit from early opening/slow ox, though that method surely predates M. Winedinners.

But the coffee filter way is a good way to not waste what is left after the sediment appears and you stop pouring. Cheesecloth and metal filters work too, though get less of the truly fine sediment.

I see no reason to filter most bottles through anything. But have never really noticed any delitorious effects from any filtering, But freely admit I'm not the most physically gifted taster. If anyone wants to "try their luck". happy to set up a test.

It might be worth noting that the circumstance that impressed me so involved getting together with friends quite spontaneously after celebrating the life of another friend who'd recently passed away. I didn't, of course, have the fore-knowledge to prep any bottles nor did they, but knowing their proclivities for Washington wines ran home and grabbed a '95 Andrew Will Merlot, as I think I mentioned, and found on arrival they had quite coincidentally stood up a '99. There was no opportunity, in other words, for either of us to stand up wines any significant time in advance.

But that said, being used to standing wines up in advance as the first line of defense, even then I was impressed with how much difference the filter made. It truly, as Hal put it, "cleaned up the wine". Better, in fact, than most standing up wine well in advance seems to do which I don't put down, I aspire to that myself. But honestly, at least in terms of new world wine, I've never seen wine so fresh as when filtered by this method. Every glass is as good as the very first.

[Oliver McCrum]

Jenise,

I think you're suggesting that the wine might even be improved by the process, and I certainly feel that wines that are completely free of sediment taste better. I have never understood the old-fashioned Burgundian idea of not decanting, I think it can obstruct the flavors significantly.

And it's true that sometimes you want to open something good without having thought of it hours earlier. When I have wine drinkers coming over I usually stand up more wines than I think we'll drink just in case...

[Victorwine]

I want to echo some of the thoughts set forth by others. First I think we should distinguish between “sediment” and “slight cloudiness or haziness”. The sediment that drops out of the wine in the wine bottle should not taste “awful”, it might feel gross in your mouth, but at this stage, once in the bottle, the sediment should not taste “awful”. I’m sure there is not a winemaker out there, which wants sediment that tastes “awful” falling out of wine and having their wine “sit on it” for any period of time once it is in the bottle. I agree that a wine totally “sediment free” might be “easier” to drink, but not necessarily more pleasurable to drink. Sediment maybe in the form of a haze or cloud could actually give a wine more body; texture, giving the wine more weight, and at times this could be a positive thing for some.

Salute

[Steve Slatcher]

Leave half a glass in the bottle with sediment? I usually leave no more than a couple of thimblefuls in the bottle! OK, so a little sediment might slip into the decanter, but somehow I never notice it when drinking. Or if I do, it is because it sits at the bottom my last glass. If you are squeamish about sediment you could always pour into a separate glass as you get towards the end of the bottle, and then work out how to deal with it later.

[Paul Winalski]

I have a decanting funnel with a metallic sieve to capture sediment. I use it for vintage Port and other wines that are likely to have thrown a lot of sediment. I'm careful to watch the wine as I carefully pour it into the funnel.

I've also used several layers of cheesecloth to capture wine sediment.

I've never used anything as fine as a paper coffee filter. I haven't felt the need to. Yes--there's often a half glass or less of wine that I couldn't pour off the sediment, but I usually pour that (and the sediment) into a glass, and after an hour or so it's fallen clear and the bit of wine that's left can be sipped off and enjoyed.

-Paul W.