This year Christmas came early for me when my fiance gave me my Christmas presents early. As I sat opening my many attractively wrapped packages, the one that excited me and intrigued me the most was an attractive glass wine decanter. Even though I am an avid drinker of red wine, it has never occurred to me in all my years that I should ever use one. Usually I would just set an open bottle of red wine on the counter for a little while before finally drinking it. However, after having used a wine decanter for the first time, I have decided that I will never go back to the old ways again!
A decanter is a vessel, usually made out of glass or lead crystal which is used to separate sediment from another vessel of liquid, for example red wine. In this process, the sediment is left in a small amount of liquid in the original vessel, and the clear liquid remains in the decanter. Decanting red wine, however, serves another purpose along with separation of the wine from the sediment and that is to oxygenate the wine.
Aeration or oxygenation is the process of adding oxygen to a liquid. Why do this? Well its really quite simple and logical when you think about it. Wine has...