I think you are right about the airation and headspace. I decant to one of those wide bottomed decanters - it gets airation durimg the decanting aa well as a large airspace over the wine.
Note I said traditionally. These days they also have the filtered wines for quick drinking. At one restaurant I was asked to call a day early if I wanted one of their better wines. They were reluctant to serve it without decanting and breathing. I mentioned this practice because I find most...
I am originally from England/France and traditionaly no one would dream of drinking wine from a freshly opened bottle. It would be decanted into a wide based bottle to let it "breathe" at least 4-6 hours before it was due to be consumed. As well as letting the wine breathe, which removes the...
I like really dry wines so would like to ferment out as much sugar as possible. When I transfer from primary to secondary, do I have to add sorbate and k-meta or could I just let any residual fermentation continue?
To be honest I don't know, and it is not just France. I was on a Greek island many years ago in a restaurant and chose a quite expensive wine as it was a special occasion. The waiter was very sorry but he really did not want to sell us that wine because it needed to be opened the day before...
Yes, and not just for 24hrs. My favorite wine seller in France would always have a few bottles open for his customers to try and sometimes they had been opened for 2-3 days. Red wines only. I remember tasting a newly opened bottle compared to one that had been "breathed". The newly opened one...
Things have changed a bit in recent years with the "buy now drink now" philosopy.
The norm however for a good french wine is that you will always need to decant it before drinking to leave the sediment behind. You also need to decant it at least 6 hours before you drink it and preferably the...
I believe that with the french wines that don't sulphate the amount of fermentation is minute when they bottle and the CO2 can escape through the corks. That may also explain the lack of oxidation. However I can understand the value of playing safe by using the k-meta.