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I’d stopped using my favourite two decanters. The glass was darker than that of less-favoured decanters. Then, suddenly, a recollection: they weren’t always darker. Perhaps a thorough cleaning was needed. And some of my funnels had also acquired a port hue: they could be cleaned too.

So an inch of bleach went in, the stopper on and a vigorous shake given. The stoppering and shaking was repeated a few times, and the decanters left for about six hours. They were then rinsed, really quite excessively. Next the bath was filled with fresh water, and the decanters left submerged overnight. In the morning both decanters had no nose at all, but were still rinsed an extra half-dozen times with very hot water before being dried.

And they are sparkly-white. I can see through them. They are, once again, my favourite two decanters.

I regret that I did not take before-and-after pictures.

Which are my favourite decanters.

In the first picture my favourite holds the Infantado, in the second my second-favourite holds the Warre 1977:

[url=http://theportforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=7886#p7886]Here[/url], jdaw1, on Fri 28 Dec 2007, wrote:The two extra bottles, and sundry decanters. Also a smidge of Australian Tokay brought by Jeff.

[url=http://theportforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=5917#p5917]Here[/url], on Tue 30 Oct 2007, jdaw1 wrote:

jdaw1 wrote:So an inch of bleach went in, the stopper on and a vigorous shake given. The stoppering and shaking was repeated a few times, and the decanters left for about six hours. They were then rinsed, really quite excessively. Next the bath was filled with fresh water, and the decanters left submerged overnight. In the morning both decanters had no nose at all, but were still rinsed an extra half-dozen times with very hot water before being dried.

I had a similar recollection with a decanter a couple of weeks ago. Rather than trying increasingly noxious chemicals, I tore a thin strip of j-cloth (for our American friends: that's a disposable cloth for washing dishes), tied it tightly around a skewer and used that with a little washing-up liquid and very hot water to clean the inside of the decanter. It was very effective--even though the decanter had a long thin neck--and made me realise that most of the darkening can simply be rubbed off.

Exactly the same result as both of these methods can be achieved using a dishwasher.