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The tasting of a wine is a magical ritual, that catches the attention of the professionals as well as the non initiated. And one of the keys of this process is not other than the optimal oxygenation of this liquid. Normally the bottles are opened ahead of time and the wine is served in glasses in which it is rotated quickly so that the oxygen penetrates and makes come out the most volatile aromas. The winemakers, however, prefer to use the expression: "the wine needs to breathe" so that it improves the perception of its aroma and bouquet. Nevertheless, the original function of decanting, that responds to its literal definition, is to separate the wine of sediments (small solid particles), caused by aging and "ripeness" of wine in the bottle, specially in the case of the red ones. Also in some occasions this change of container contributes to eliminate the possible own scents of a wine that has remained long time maturing within a bottle.
The experts recommend that the wine bottle has remained vertical at least during the day previous to decanting. Once opened, it will be spilled in the decanter in a dry and dark place, so that it does not affect the organoleptic properties of the wine, with a continuous and smooth movement until it is observed that the sediments have reached the neck of the bottle.
Nevertheless, although the globalisation of wine tasting is recent, the use of decanters to oxygenate this product dates of remote times. Thus, square-shaped wine bottles and Roman jugs elaborated in silver or glass can be considered precedent of the present decanters. Although there exist older ancestors like the mud pitchers, adorned with some drawings and coloured handles and with small neck or even with a varnish of salt, that gave certain roughness to the surface. The evolution of this utensil continued during the Middle Age, a period in which the bronze and the silver were the more used materials. But both were gradually replaced by the glass and this one, as well, by the crystal, that is, without a doubt, the star of raw material at the present time.
Nowadays, the decanter is an instrument that, in addition to functional, enjoys a decorative utility. Although there are of different sizes and forms, usually they are made with transparent crystal to see with clarity the colour of wine, have an approximate capacity of a litre so that it can perfectly contain the standard bottle of 75 centilitres and, finally, have a wide mouth so that it avoids to spill out the liquid when it is being transferred.
But technology also arrives at the wine world, and wine tasting enthusiasts have new alternatives to decant their wines. Thus, it is now possible to acquire glasses that have the capacity to oxygenate the wine in only 4 minutes, as opposed to between 45 and 120 minutes, depending on the body of the wine and its year, that needs a traditional decanter to make the same task. This "glass-decanter" is possible thanks to the only composition of its crystal, without lead oxide, that allows that a greater amount of oxygen penetrates through the walls of the glass, obtaining therefore a faster sensorial perception of the wine.
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