Dundee Hills Pinot: 3 hour decant!

[crushday]

I’m hoping to draw upon the experience and expertise of the collective…

I opened the first bottle of Dundee Hills tonight (I have 125…oops, 124 bottles). I gave it a cursory decant, removing the cork while Mrs. Crushday made dinner: Halibut, tossed salad and fresh greenbeans from her garden.

The Pinot never came around during dinner. Both of us commented on how disappointed we were. But, I just tasted it - three hours later - and, it’s really great.

Will this wine always need a couple hours to “open” up? I suspect not. But, worth asking…

 

[CDrew]

I have found that a lot of home made wine benefits from a run though one of those aerator spouts. That does the quick version of letting it sit for 3 hours. You might try that and see what happens. Heck you've only got 10 more cases of it, so don't be afraid.

 

[Neb Farmer]

In my experience, almost any decent, full-bodied dry red wine benefits from decanting for an hour or two. And if you forgot to decant ahead of time, you can always pour a glass or two into a cocktail shaker and give it 30 seconds of shaking....it actually helps!

 

[winemaker81]

I used a aerator spout, as @CDrew suggested. It can make a huge difference immediately.

 

[Chris Johnson]

When did you bottle? I’ve found it takes about 6 mo for Pinot to get over being bottled. I had a Pinot from 2019 that was awful at the 2 mo mark. I put a cork in it and came back in 3 days and it was improved quite a bit. It was best on day 5. I’m hoping to stumble across some Dundee fruit. I have Yamhill and Laurelwood nailed down so far this year.