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Does decanting through muslin leave a taint of cotton dust? I’m pondering an experiment to be performed on a magnum of Noval 1963.

• Seal to be photographed and then removed, and the bottle left standing in the cellar. This allows things to settle after the bottle-shaking wax cutting.
• On tasting day, likely to be in early 2008, the magnum will be freehand decanted, in the old style with a light underneath, into a magnum decanter. Pouring will stop when sediment is seen.
• This magnum decanter of “prime port† will then be re-decanted into three smaller decanters: one through new muslin, one through washed muslin, one though nothing.
• The non-prime sediment-rich port will be split into two, part being decanted through (washed?) muslin into a fourth decanter, and part through a non-bleached coffee filter into a fifth.
• Taste. Is there a taint of cotton dust?

Have others already done this or a like experiment? Can others suggest improvements to this experiment?

I have often wordered this but have never actually tried decanting through anything other than my stainless steel filter.

jdaw1 wrote: Can others suggest improvements to this experiment?

Yes, do it on Alan's patio when we are all together 8)

Derek

Me too. the stainless steel filter does leave some sediment in the decanter, but then I can filter that again by hand if I wish to.

Filter by hand? I've seen your fingers and I'm pretty certain sediment will get between them.

Its amazing what can slip through your fingers!
I've let TWO houses do exactly that. They fell in the lap of my Ex-wives.
I've sewn my fingers together with my current home!!!

Alan

Umm, no, that's not what I meant. Like I said last night, it was late.

I meant filtering without aid of any kind of filter.

Though come to think of it, I'd rather strain port through my fingers than my teeth, as I understand some people do....

Only for Croft 45, bman, nothing less.

Is there a 'Teeth Straining' story out there, that you should maybe share???

Yes, but I'll leave it to Alex or Stevie to tell, since it was them what did the strainin'!

the stainless steel filter does leave some sediment in the decanter

If the sediment is fine and the wine dark, it's hard to avoid a little getting into the decanter.

While the last glass may end up being a tad cloudy - it's often the best one out of the decanter - a little wispy sediment does not seem to be a taste impairment

Tom

uncle tom wrote: the last glass ...... it's often the best one out of the decanter

That is the most frustrating phenomenon in the world of port

Derek

uncle tom wrote:While the last glass may end up being a tad cloudy - it's often the best one out of the decanter

Suggesting decanting into micro-decanters, holding one glass each. Perhaps the technique would be to decant directly into twenty-odd glasses, and … (stop me when this gets silly, like, perhaps, now)

jdaw1 wrote:

uncle tom wrote:While the last glass may end up being a tad cloudy - it's often the best one out of the decanter

Suggesting decanting into micro-decanters, holding one glass each. Perhaps the techniqu would be to decant directly into twenty-odd glasses, and … (stop me when this gets silly, like, perhaps, now)

No, I'm up for that.

Conky wrote:Is there a 'Teeth Straining' story out there, that you should maybe share??? Smile

More than one actually, both involving Stevie and me.

1. At Stevie's place on either the first or second occasion that I was there he dragged out something about 500 years old that he'd accidentally shaken up;

2. At bman's hotel room we spotted a Croft '45 (I say spotted, had it pointed out to us with big, beamin Canadian smile). It had stuff in the bottom which was so that we could have a sniff, but based on previous experience (see point 1. above) Stevie poured it out into a couple of glasses.

bman had also decanted a bottle of Martinez '94 and left the dregs in the bottle. Stevie dranks this as well whilst I had spotted the decanter and drank the clean stuff. I think he was beginning to like it.

(insert graemlin with big, beamin Canadian smile here.....)