Decant

When we were newly married we considered it quite the thing to mess about with decanters, of which we owned several. However, after a while the use of decanters waned and after a further while the decanters moved on to a jumble sale - this being before the era of the high street charity shop.

Then rather more than a year ago there was a bout of adding spirits to hedgerow fruit: gin to sloes and whisky to blackberries, the product of which we are now getting around to consuming. But due to errors in the manufacturing process, there is a reasonable amount of sludge and after a while it occurred to me that what we needed was a decanter. The real point of a decanter is not to add class to one's catering operation but rather to serve as an secondary wine container, leaving the sludge behind in the primary container, the bottle. One could then shake the secondary vessel about with impunity, the sort of thing one might get up to half cut, safe in the knowledge that the sludge was no more.

Next stop one of the charity shops in Epsom High Street, where I acquired a heavy, if rather ordinary, decanter (including stopper) for £6.

Decant one of the bottles of sloe gin into the decanter and drink. Not bad stuff at all, although we learned that the lip of the decanter was not really up to the neat pouring of a rather sticky fluid. Maybe a grander decanter would have a thinner lip and pour better; maybe we will get to check this theory in the upcoming car booter season.

Next decant one of the bottles of blackberry whisky into the decanter and start to drink. Strong whiff of blackberries about the stuff which was good but the taste was not so good. In conference, we decided that despite having added a pound or so of preserving sugar to the flagon back in 2011 (see August 22nd in the other place), more sugar was appropriate. So yesterday evening, while waiting for ITV3 to come on stream, added a further 3oz of granulated sugar. Still there this morning, so gave the decanter a good shake, after which it vanished. Current plan is to try the stuff again this evening.

Next conference will consider the shelf life of the stuff in the decanter. Will the weak winter light and the strong winter heating do the stuff in? Some sort of unpleasant oxidisation process? There will be a further report in due course.