Thursday, July 19, 2012

The Proper Christening


Yellow wine, I’d like to introduce you to Eve. 

Now if you have never heard of yellow wine before, you’re not alone. This was actually my first encounter of the Jura wine, yet this bottle we drank was almost as old as I am.  And for the decanter…Eve…this was definitely not your average carafe.  It is said to wait 2 hours after decanting wine before drinking it to allow for proper aeration. With this decanter you could drink the wine immediately after decanting, it aerates up to 200 times faster than others!  I was fortunate enough to have enjoyed the spoils of a 1985 Chateau-Chalon along with the thrills of pouring it from a 20” tall crystal snake. However, this enjoyment did not come easily.


The first video is of my father in-law decanting this 27 year old, 1985 Chateau-Chalon yellow wine. You will notice how he does not quickly invert the entire bottle and pour it like most other wine; he does this to prevent the sediment that has formed over the years from entering the decanter.  As he pours it, you can see the deep amber color and the thick viscosity of the wine as it slowly flows down the neck and into the coils of Eve. Once the wine has found its new, temporary home, the fun began. The second video is of us trying to figure out how to actually pour this delicate nectar without spilling it or breaking Jack’s new ‘toy’. It was fun, a little frustrating, yet extremely rewarding in the end once we all experienced the aerating engineering behind this state of the art decanter.


What an experience! Yellow wine was nothing what I expected. Notes of green apple and licorice at first, almost bitter, but after my pallet acclimated, subtle notes of pear and fig emerged. For those of you who have not had the chance to experience something very different while tasting wine, source a bottle of this Jura wine and taste what a minimum of 6 years and 3 month aging process confined to a small oak barrel will do to a white wine.  Enjoy!

If you would like to see how to properly pour from this decanter, via Maximilian Riedel, see the video below.


2 comments:

  1. I think that the carafe is definitely unique. I also love to hear about the complex flavors of an aged white wine which is clearly rare. However, is there a way to pour more than an ounce at a time from the carafe? That seems like an awful lot of work to get all the wine out. Is it better than a regular decanter in your opinion?

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  2. @Foodstuff - We later found the instructional video (that comes with the decanter) to be very helpful. I have added the video at the end which demonstrates how to properly pour from Eve. I do believe this is a superior decanter as it aerates 200 times faster than any other...it literally gurgles as your pour from it.

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