Brian gave me a great wine decanter for Christmas, and ocassionally I’ll use it and sometimes when a group of us are discussing wine, we talk about decanting it. We discuss the reasons why you would or would not, and the various techniques used to do it. We have been aware that certain red wine needs to “breathe” and that simply opening it is insufficient for this purpose. Most of us like to swirl our red wines in the glass, and some think (I do) that doing so circulates air through it and makes the wine taste better.
Here is some information on decanting from the website of one of the great (if not the greatest) wine chateaus in France. If anyone would know about decanting, it would be this maison.