Shortly after Marcel Kreuz became the first restaurateur outside France to earn a third Michelin star, I went to Brussels to have lunch with him in his beautiful Villa Lorraine. There were just the two of us, so we had a chance to talk about his wine cellar. I was distracted, however, when his wine steward decanted the bottle of champagne he had brought with our appetizers. The decanter and both our glasses had been put in a freezer and came to table frosted. "I decant every wine," he told me. "That gives everyone a chance to see the wine."

Monsieur Kreuz remains the most passionate among my acquaintances about the value of decanting a bottle of wine, but that doesn't mean there aren't strong arguments for and against the practice.

I hold to two reasons only for decanting: (1) To separate the sediment that accrues in a bottle of old wine; and (2) To show off your decanter. Done properly, decanting is a rather pretty ceremony, so that may be a third reason. Steven Spurrier, as director of the Academy of Wine in Paris, held to the maxim that if the purpose is to enhance the sensory pleasure, those who decant are never wrong and those who never decant often are.

One can make a case for aeration -- that the transfer of a young wine from bottle to decanter accents the aroma and flavor. It can also be said that the slight warming of a bottle directly from a cool cellar poured into a room-temperature decanter, the wine reaches a better serving temperature.

While hardly anyone opposes the decanting of old, fine red wines (except Burgundy), most consumers feel it is a waste of time and that it's better to serve directly from the bottle so everyone can see the label. Decanting white wines becomes even more controversial -- arguments ranging from never (because it will raise the temperature) to always if the alcohol percentage exceeds 13%.

Whatever you think, the process is relatively simple and requires only an open bottle, a decanter, and a candle on the table. If it is an older bottle, it should be kept upright and should have been upright for a day or so before serving to be sure that any sediment has settled at the bottom. Position the neck of the bottle above the candle flame so you can look through the glass at the candle. Pour slowly into the decanter until you see the trail of sediment approaching the shoulder of the bottle. What you then have in the decanter is the wine to serve; what's left in the bottle is the bitter sediment, harmless but bitter.