Mike Tommasi > wrote:

> BTW, I was rummaging around a nice store in Catalunya last week,
> and picked up a very nice decanter from Schott Zwiesel or
> something like that, a perfect shape if you ask me, none of
> these silly flat carafes that are impossible to hold when
> pouring. Almost a chemistry lab shape, nice and round on the
> bottom, wide long neck, light weight. Cheap. Unbreakable
> crystal.

Unbreakable crystal doesn't exist.

Anyhow, I recently gave up using decanters altogether, although I
own more than half a dozen (including a 3000 ml chemistry flask I
bought for decanting my first double magnum last summer).

What I do now is quite simple: I double decant (with a funnel), so
that in the end the wine is back in its original (rinsed, of
course, if there was deposit) bottle.

The reason is quite simple: With bottles I can use drop-stop foils
which reduce the risk of tainting the tablecloth to near zero,
while no such device exists for decanters. With the latter I
always have to use napkins, because non-dripping decanters do not
exist. (If somebody else at the table helps himself, they never
bother to take the napkin, and there you are again with the
stains.)

Besides, double decanting into the original bottle minimizes the
risk of confusion when you serve more than one wine.

M.