Sunday, September 30, 2012

How Wine Decanters Are Used

By Randi Boyer


Wine decanters are pieces of equipment that are used to store and serve alcoholic drinks. Decantation involves separation of a liquid from another liquid which is insoluble. The decanters normally vary in terms of shape and design. Most of them are usually made from materials that are not chemically reactive for example glass. They usually have a capacity of 750 ml.

These apparatus are presented in different designs and structure. They are basically made from chemically inactive materials like glass. The standard storage capacity of this equipment is 0.75 Liters. Besides this type of decanter, we also have Carafes. Carafes highly resemble decanters in that they are used for storing and serving alcoholic drinks. The only difference is that a carafe does not have a stopper unlike a decanter which have.

Initially these decanters were mainly used in the serving of drinks. They were usually filled with wine poured out of an amphora making it efficient for the people to bring the drinks to their guests and serve them as well. Ancient Romans were the ones who came up with the idea of using the glass decanters. However, when the Roman Empire came to an end, the manufacture of these types of containers stopped. They were replaced with the use of silver, earthenware, bronze and gold.

Venetians are credited for having brought back the glass decanters. This happened during the period of renaissance. British glass-makers came up with a stopper. Since that time few adjustments have been made to the overall design of the structure.

The decanting process starts when a liquid is poured into the decanter from a different container. The purpose for this process is to separate the residue from the rest of the liquid, thus leaving the residue in the initial container while the pure liquid is transferred into the decanter.

This apparatus is also used to aerate the beverage. The container is structured in a manner as to give an imitation of what takes place when a glass is twirled, the simulation of particle movement, which discharges aroma composites. These units usually soften the hard elements of some drinks.

There are drinkers who prefer to decant their wine either for aeration or to remove sediments, but they want controlled exposure of the beverage to air. There is an option of double decanting the beverage whereby it is decanted into a clean bottle. The original bottle is then cleaned off any sediment and the beverage decanted back into the bottle. This process of pouring the drink back and forth aerates it. Many tasters opt for this method when they are taking the drink to a place for example a restaurant or a persons house for dinner.

Wine decanters are pieces of equipment used to serve as well as store alcoholic drinks. It is believed that these decanters also help to smoother the overall effect of the beverage. They can be found in many online stores.




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1 comment:

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