Does Decanting Actually Fix Cheap Wine-

Today, we're going to play one of my favorite games called Find Stuff Out. Find Stuff Out about decanting. But we're not going to read about it. We're going to do it in these puppies. Five identical sized decanters, nicely proportioned so they fit on the table. And five totally different wines to work out what happens to each of these and which one performs best. So Fred, in here we have a cheap and cheerful Audi Classic. It's a Rhone Valley Red, £6.99. And then two supermarket big hitters. We've got a Cabernet Sauvignon from California and we've got a Pinot Noir from California. Both about 10 quid. And then I'm going to take you to Bordeaux and we've got two absolute classic decanting wines. This one, 2020, so it's six years old. And this one, 2005, which must make it about 15, 21 years old. We are going to work out the best wines to decant. Is it the cheap ones? Is it the heavy ones? Or is it the old ones? Should we get going? Right. There are three reasons to decant a wine. First and foremost, so it looks the nuts. Once you put it in here, it looks really pretty. Second is because sometimes a red wine will throw a sediment, so all the gunk at the bottom of the bottle, that you want to leave in the bottle and not in your wine glass. Third, the only one I'm doing here is because oxygen changes the flavor of red wine. Give it a bit of oxygen, flavors open up and all sorts of things go on. So we're going to taste these without the decanting, they're just opened. In goes our cheap and cheerful little Audi number from the Rhone Valley. Main grape variety is Grenache and Syrah. It's jumping out the bloody wine glass already. It's really, really fruity. I can smell it from over here. And in it goes. And that's already quite soft, but I feel the dry tan in there. It'll be interesting to see whether four hours in oxygen makes that even more open. It's bloody good wine, that's 6.99. 6.39. It's a great wine. Now, in goes Dark Horse Cabernet Sauvignon. Now this is a Californian wine, so it's quite soft, juicy, again, quite dark. So Fred, look at the colors of these. Very important to have a roll of bog roll. It'd be clearer if you got out the light. So should I get out the frigging light? Should I go there? Right, can you see that's dark? Yes. And can you see that's light? Yes. Jesus, the things I have to do. So it'll be interesting to see whether decanting affects a dark one. So that's already very soft. It's got nice vanilla notes. It's sort of quite creamy, juicy wine. Not too much structure. I don't know that decanting is gonna do anything to that. In goes our Pinot. So Pinot, I can hardly smell anything on this. That one's more sort of red fruity. Again, really open. Not sure decanting that is gonna do anything to it. So these two here are already really rich, juicy. That's all black fruit and vanilla. This is all red fruit, sort of cranberry, strawberry kind of thing. The whole idea of giving wine oxygen is it brings fruit out and opens up aroma and flavor. These guys, they're already running down the track. Let's get this guy in. Moulin de Malascas. So this is a very traditional Bordeaux. It's six years old. My maths is good if we're under 10. And it's got, it sucks the inside of my jaw in. It has got big structure, big tannin. I feel there's more in there to give. That I'm expecting to develop quite a lot in bottle. Here we've got Chateau Clark, 2005. Look at the color of this, Fred. Right, this one is the younger wine. So it's slightly brighter and more garnet color. This wine is the older wine and it's got a slight hint of orange around the edge. Sort of brownie thing. I mean, I can see it, but I don't. Do you think I'm talking ----? It smells much less fruity, little bit closed. I'm wondering what's going on. And it's very tight. I can hardly taste anything on that wine. Is the fruit there at all? Yeah, the fruit's there. The fruit's there. It's hidden though. I've got loads of tannin. I've got loads of structure to the wine. I want you to open up a bit of charm in you. Just to recap. This, the Costier de Nimes from Aldi on me, Fred, is soft, juicy, but it has got some tannin. I'm wanting the decanter just to soften that out a little bit, but the fruit's already here. These two, that one and that one, the fruit is jumping out of the glass. The tannin, which is the dryness in the mouth, I can hardly feel it. It's just soft, juicy, easy, chug-em-your-day wines. Over here, Fred. These two are big, old, hairy badgers. So this one here, it's a 2020, six years old, from just north of Bordeaux, and it's got lots of fruit, but it's got lots of muscle. They're both from amazing years. 2020, like warm, sunshine, big wines. And 2005, maybe one of the best years Bordeaux's ever had. It's got the fruit, it's got the tannin, but the fruit is being hidden. This is the one that I hope is gonna be changed most out of decanter. But who knows, because this is a live experiment, so I'm gonna go. Go. Let's go. I rinse these decanters because sometimes you can get something that smells of chide. Does the shape of the decanter matter? Yes, it does, but only, but the main thing is getting oxygen into the wine. So to be honest, you could use a milk bottle. It really doesn't matter. In goes the Mark West, which is our light wine. And then we're gonna leave these for four hours. You don't have to hang around for four hours. And we're gonna come and retaste them and see how they've changed. So here we've given a fairly rough pouring of the wines. In goes the oxygen. Boosh, boosh, boosh. Me gone. Four hours. See you later. Oof, a little four hour nap. And these little guys have breathed away. Is that English? For four hours beautifully. Right, we're gonna try them. So the Costier de Nimes, four hours in the decanter. Does it taste any different at all? So this was soft, juicy, but had a little bit of tannin to it. So let's go with it. Mm, that does taste a little bit silkier. The tannins are slightly more rounded. Six quid 39, and it definitely tastes better four hours in the decanter. Right, let's go with a Dark Horse Cabernet Sauvignon. This was really halfway down the running track, leaping over the hurdles, having a lovely time before it had any oxygen at all. Smells really expressive. Probably about the same, but a little bit, maybe a bit more intense. That tastes pretty much exactly as it did. So there's lots of jam, lots of juicy fruit. Oxygen hasn't really done anything to it. It was ready to go before the decanter, and it's still pretty ready to go. Right, now we're gonna go Mark West Pinot Noir. In we go. So this is a light red. Love a motorbike. Light red, Pinot from California. Smelled of nothing at all before the decanter. Smells of nothing at all after decanter. It actually tastes a little bit better. Terribly confusing. No, no, no, how are we gonna, because it does taste better after the decanter. You didn't want it to do that. And I didn't want it to do that. It's brightened the fruit. It's made the wine a little bit more opulent, and I was expecting it to do sweet F.A. It's actually turned Mark West Pinot, which was a thoroughly average wine, into something that's really quite tasty. So far, these two definitely benefit from a little bit of oxygen. The Moulin Rose de Malascas, in she goes. So this is a six-year-old Bordeaux. It was quite grippy and chippy when I first tasted it. And when that's done, is it's just really enveloped the fruit in gorgeous, like, creamy texture to it. That wine has definitely opened up, filled out, and made itself roast beef ready. That is- Textbook decanter. That is exactly why you should use a decanter. Now, here we got a 15, 21, 27-year-old, something like that, do the math for it. Middle one. 21-year-old Bordeaux that was tasting a little bit like a wet nappy when I tasted it earlier. Has that decanter found the fruit? Ooh, that's absolutely lush. What that's doing is it's giving me that little bit of Bordeaux pencil shaving kind of aroma, which I know you think sounds absolutely wanky, but you should have a little sniff of this. Fred, sniff this. It is absolutely bloody gorgeous. And I didn't get that four hours ago. No way. That's completely and utterly changed that wine. That is a tuck me up in bed, see you in the morning, don't disturb me, utterly delicious Bordeaux. That's a banger. What the decanter's done is it's just got the oxygen in there to get all of those bits going. The fruit's coming out, the earthiness is coming out, the oats coming out. It's a complex wine. To sum it up, what should we decant? If it's 10 quid or below, couple of hours on the decanter, you can't go wrong. But if it's 15 quid or above and you just can't taste the fruit when you first taste the wine, get it in a decanter, two, four hours. Honestly, these guys sing. It makes a real difference here. On your bike? I might go for a bike ride. That's a wrap. That Mark West pissed you off. But that's not what I expected. The bottle just tastes tight. The decanter tastes really juicy. It's really benefited from four hours in the ******* decanter.