Decanting Aged Red Burgundy: A Gentle Approach to Old Pinot Noir

Of all the old wines you might pull from a cellar, mature red Burgundy is the one people handle most nervously, and with good reason. Pinot Noir from the Côte d'Or can age into something extraordinary, with layers of forest floor, dried rose, spice and red fruit, but by then the wine is often delicate. Treat it roughly, or give it too much air too early, and the bouquet you waited years for can fade before the second glass.

That fragility is why decanting old Burgundy is one of the most argued-over topics in wine. Here's what the disagreement is about, and how to get an aged bottle off its sediment with as little disturbance as possible.

Why Burgundy is different

Red Burgundy is made almost entirely from Pinot Noir, a thin-skinned grape that typically gives wines lighter in color and tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon or Nebbiolo. Because sediment in red wine is largely made up of tannins and pigments that have bound together and fallen out of solution over time, less tannin generally means less deposit. Decanter magazine notes that Burgundy, being less tannic, is less likely to throw much deposit than wines like Bordeaux, though old bottles may well have done.

So the first job with an aged Burgundy is simply to look. Hold the bottle up to a light. Some old Burgundies carry a fine, loose sediment that clouds the wine at the slightest movement. Others are nearly clean. Our guide to which wines throw sediment covers what to expect by region and age, and what is wine sediment explains what you're looking at.

The debate: decant or don't?

Many Burgundy lovers will tell you never to decant an old Burgundy. The reasoning is that a fragile wine exposed to a sudden rush of oxygen can lose its aromatic subtlety quickly, and that the wine is better opened and poured carefully straight from the bottle.

Not everyone agrees. New York retailer Chambers Street Wines puts it bluntly: based on the number of fine old Burgundies they've tasted that were spoiled by sediment, they respectfully disagree, and their baseline for old wine with sediment is to decant just before serving. They suggest one to two hours ahead for Burgundy up to about ten years old, and shortly before serving for older bottles.

Jancis Robinson takes a similar line on fragile old wines in general, saving the most delicate old bottles to be decanted just before serving rather than ahead of time. And a Decanter taste test on decanting concluded that decanting too early is worse than too late, with the risk of oxidation in the decanter rising the more evolved the wine is.

Put together, the consensus is less "never decant" than "never rough it up." If an old Burgundy has sediment, separate it, but do it gently, do it at the last moment, and keep air exposure to a minimum.

Step 1: Move the bottle gently and let it settle

Burgundy sediment is often fine and easily disturbed, so the less the bottle moves, the better. If you can, stand it upright a day or more before opening so the deposit settles to the base. Our guide to how long wine should stand upright explains why longer is better for fine sediment.

If you can't plan that far ahead, one traditional alternative in Burgundy is the decanting basket or cradle. The bottle is moved from the rack into the basket while still lying at roughly the same angle, so the sediment stays along the side where it settled, and the wine is opened and poured from the basket. It takes a steady hand, but it avoids flipping the bottle upright and stirring everything up.

Step 2: Open it with care

Old corks in Burgundy bottles can be soft and fragile. An ah-so, or a two-part puller that combines a worm with side blades, grips the cork without boring through its weakest point. Keep the bottle as still as possible while you work. Our guide to opening an old bottle of wine covers the technique step by step.

If the cork crumbles into the wine anyway, it's an inconvenience, not a fault. See what to do when the cork crumbles.

Then smell the wine. A slightly closed or funky first impression is common with old Burgundy and often clears in a few minutes. A persistent musty, wet-cardboard smell means cork taint, which no method can fix.

Step 3: Choose the gentlest way to separate the sediment

Each method below is walked through in our guide to decanting wine with sediment. For a fragile Pinot Noir, the main thing to weigh is how much air and agitation each one introduces.

Pouring from the bottle into glasses. If the deposit is light and the bottle has stood long enough, you can serve straight from the bottle and leave the last ounce or two behind. It's the lowest-air option, though the later pours may pick up some sediment.

A careful pour into a decanter. Pour slowly, in one continuous motion, against the side of a narrow decanter, with a light behind the neck, and stop as the sediment reaches the shoulder. Avoid wide-bottomed "aerating" decanters designed to maximize surface area; for an old Burgundy you want the opposite. The difference between the two jobs is covered in decanting vs. aerating.

Double decanting. Pouring off the sediment, rinsing the bottle and pouring the wine back in lets you serve from the original bottle, but it means two pours and twice the air. With a very old Burgundy, consider whether that extra contact is worth it. More on the technique in what is double decanting.

A siphon. For fragile wines, a siphon has a clear advantage: the bottle never has to be tipped. The Jory is a siphon decanter designed in Oregon that draws clear wine off the sediment. Because the bottle stays upright and still, fine Burgundy sediment that would cloud the wine with the motion of a pour stays where it settled, and the wine flows into your decanter or carafe without splashing. The bottle needs to sit higher than the vessel you're filling. If the cork crumbled into the bottle, you can use the Jory as normal, and it won't draw up the cork.

Wine by the glass. If you want to drink a fragile bottle over several evenings, or taste it without committing to the whole thing, read our post on using a Coravin with old wine and sediment.

Step 4: Serve promptly and let it unfold in the glass

With an old Burgundy, it's usually best to serve soon after separating the sediment. Pour small amounts into wide-bowled glasses and let the wine open at its own pace. Many old Burgundies change markedly over an hour in the glass, sometimes blossoming, sometimes fading. Tasting as you go is the only reliable guide.

Serve it a little cool rather than warm. Pinot Noir's aromas can turn soupy and alcoholic if the wine gets too warm, and a slightly cool start gives the wine room to evolve as it warms in the glass.

The short version

Old red Burgundy rarely needs air. What it may need is to be separated from a fine, easily disturbed sediment. Move the bottle as little as possible, let it settle upright or use a basket, open it with a tool built for fragile corks, and choose the separation method that involves the least tipping and splashing. Decant at the last moment, serve promptly, and let the glass do the rest.