No crumbly old cork is going to ruin your night.
Decanting a bottle is a great way to get the best taste out of your wine. It increases oxygen exposure and improves the flavour. It basically fast-tracks a young wine to something to maturity. The issue with this on a super-old bottle that has hit its peak the old-fashioned way is you’re at risk of taking it too far and losing some of its yum in the decanter. The experts would tell you anything hearty like a Bordeaux, cabernet or shiraz should be able to handle decanting, but anything more delicate, like a Burgundy, might not take it as well.
The major benefit of decanting an old bottle is to separate the juice from the sediment, firstly in the pouring from the bottle to the decanter, then from the decanter to the glass. Again, this is where cheesecloth or a sieve can come in handy. Decanters are usually clear glass, so they are easier to see sediment than the dark wine bottles. Win, win!
