For The Love Of Port

Is there a type or brand of decanter that you buy most often for Port?

Do you have a stylistic preference or design that is not currently being achieved by commerical decanters?

This is my favourite decanter, coincidentally filled with my favourite VP



I find this style very easy to clean. It doesn't take up a lot of storage space (not that it spends much time being stored away ) and is a good shape for pouring.

I like the look of ship's decanters, and have a few of my own, but I find them impractical for precisely the opposite reasons to the one pictured above. I do not like square or cut glass decanters.

The decanter pictured above came free with 12 bottles of wine. It is crystal, from a well known producer who's name escapes me, and is available from the same source for £20.

Derek

My favorite decanter is the Visual Wine Decanter from Wine Enthusiast. It provides good aeration and is exceptionally sturdy on the table. It is fairly thick so I'm not too worried about it breaking, its flat base means there no danger of accidentally knocking it over, but its more-or-less bottle shaped profile means that pouring from it is very easy.

I also have one of the very wide, rounded base decanters (is that a ship's decanter?) that looks something like this one, and while they're great for presentation, I find them difficult to use especially once the decanter starts to empty.

BTW - these things are amazing. I highly recommend them if you have problems drying your decanters.

Right now, I have you standard "pineapple" shaped one. Traditional looking. Modern manufacture. Nice, but a little too heavy.

Glenn E. wrote:I also have one of the very wide, rounded base decanters (is that a ship's decanter?) that looks something like this one, and while they're great for presentation, I find them difficult to use especially once the decanter starts to empty.

Yes, that's a ship's decanter, named as such because you need the forearms of a 19th Century sailor to hold it when getting the last few drips into the glass

Derek T. wrote:

Glenn E. wrote:I also have one of the very wide, rounded base decanters (is that a ship's decanter?) that looks something like this one, and while they're great for presentation, I find them difficult to use especially once the decanter starts to empty.

Yes, that's a ship's decanter, named as such because you need the forearms of a 19th Century sailor to hold it when getting the last few drips into the glass

I figured it was because they could serve as an anchor in a pinch!

I have a number of differently shaped decanters and my favorite two are the pineapple one that looks like the one in Derek's picture and another one that is a cross between the pineapple and ships decanter types. The base is a bit wider but it's the sides are verticle. It gives it more surface area than the pineapple type but isn't as hard to pour as the ships decanter.

While I love using ships decanters for younger ports so they get more exposure to air, due to the larger surface area of the liquid inside, they are a major PITA to pour from. I often times will pour it into another decanter or back into the bottle just before serving since the ships decanter is so hard to pour into small glasses. Plus it takes up a ton of space on the table.

I own two decanters at the moment. Below is the "Torus", easy to grip, easy to pour except for the last half glass. For scale, I should tell you that the bottle in the picture is a half, 375ml. I also have one of large bottomed ones. I can't really answer Roy's question yet.

Nice diversity of decanter shapes/preferences so far. I have 10 decanters, no two are alike. :wall:
I have gotten used to pouring from the really crazy difficult ones like this one humongous Mag decanter that weighs more than a mag of wine ... even empty. I would love to find ... NON-crystal decanters, that are solid, have slighly low centers of gravity, bulbous bowl and narrow aperture with a decently thick glass that would be in the $15 range that would be great for Vintage Ports. I am still searching.

By the way, I realize few of you ever have Port hanging out in a decanter for more than a couple of days, but does anyone here ever have concerns about the lead in crystal decanters?

No worries about lead. IIRC Jay mentioned in another thread a long time ago that it would have to be in a leaded decanter for a long time for it to leach into the liquid. And a few days just isn't long enough to do that. So I really have no worries about it.

I like to find decanters at my local discount clothing/furnishing store TJ Maxx or Marshalls. They get various shapes in from time to time and they are almost always under $10-15 each. I see no reason to pay more than $20-25 for a decanter. The $200 Reidel decanter works the same as my $10 discount one. All it is there for is to airate the wine. I ain't drinking from it, well not very often and not at home

There is one other purpose for the decanter - to be a showpiece on the table. And while a $25 glass decanter from your local discount store can serve that purpose, it's just not as impressive as a Riedel Amadeo or the brand new Riedel Black Tie and Riedel Eve decanters. But all three of those are around $400, so you'd have to really want a showpiece in order to buy one!

Andy Velebil wrote: I like to find decanters at my local discount clothing/furnishing store TJ Maxx or Marshalls. They get various shapes in from time to time and they are almost always under $10-15 each. I see no reason to pay more than $20-25 for a decanter.

I got the Maxx for the minimum on my decanter. Unless it's vintage or with silver plating, I can't see spending much on one.

There's a difference to a port decanter vs. wine decanter... The port decanters are not meant to aerate the wine as much as wine decanter. It's more like a way to present the port in a beautiful bottle. Tongs ruined the port bottle anyhow, so it has to go into something.

I think the next time I need a decanter I'm going to decant and then later pour the wine back into the bottle, and let the bottle be the showpiece. I don't have tongs yet, and even if I did, I don't know that I could easily use them as my fireplace is now gas and sealed up.

Eric Menchen wrote: I don't have tongs yet, and even if I did, I don't know that I could easily use them as my fireplace is now gas and sealed up.

Eric,
I don't have a fireplace at all and I use them quite regularly. I use a combination of the gas stove and a small handheld propane torch and within 10 minutes they are red hot and ready to use. Its a lot easier than most people think.

3-5 minutes with MAP Gas Torch to get tongs red hot.

I have a torch for sweating pipe. I guess I need to get some tongs then
Can you heat them just on a gas stove? How about a 100,000 BTU gas burner?

Eric Menchen wrote:Can you heat them just on a gas stove? How about a 100,000 BTU gas burner?

Well since your typical gas stove burner is between 9000 and 17000 BTU, I'd say that a 100,000 BTU burner would do VERY nicely.

Yeah, but please make sure you keep a fire extinguisher nearby and don't do this next to your dining room curtains.

Roy Hersh wrote:Yeah, but please make sure you keep a fire extinguisher nearby and don't do this next to your dining room curtains.

So is that speaking from experience? :help:

If you are buying a torch, get the yellow can; MAPP Gas. Blows away the blue can in speed. Great for pealing peppers too, can burn the skin off a large pepper within 20 seconds.

Caution should be used at all times