Oxidation from a decanter?
So in movies/shows set in/from yesteryear it seems that everyone has a decanter of whiskey out, and people go fix themselves a drink. I've always been curious - what sort of risk of oxidation would there be from that? I've always figured that a closed bottle would be good enough for a long, long time but that's a much more air accessible container ... would it still be a long while (months+) before it was an issue?
jgg13
Nov 05, 2009 12:51PM
Unless it has a tight fitting stopper you will get evaporation of the spirit from a decanter. basically when spirits are put in a decanter they are meant to be used within a few days.
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Gotcha. The gf recently inherited a decanter and wanted to put one of our various whiskeys in there. My argument was that it probably needed to be consumed quickly, which we probably (hopefully, heh) wouldn't do.
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I'd be more concerned about the lead that is in a lot of crystal decanters. A little evaporation I can live with, but lead poisoning is more serious.
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True, if it's a lead crystal decanter it shouldn't even be used.
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Check this article out: Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...
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A good well made decanter is at least as air tight as a bottle.
If you are using it for spirits even lead crystal is probably okay. Though I would not want to keep my whole liquor cabinet in lead crystal.
Red wine, (little reason to decant white wine) which is somewhat acidic is a bit more problematic and will cause more of the lead to leach out. If you decant wine into lead crystal you should drink it that night, and not do it that often.
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