Letting your wine catch its breath

Connoisseur or casual drinker, everyone comes across a bottle of wine that deserves some extra care and attention. Boxed wines and cheaper vintages are as good as they’re going to get once they’re opened. But other, more delicate wines like to catch their breath a little bit before they’re consumed.

The proper aeration of a wine (or breathing as some call it) is more art than science. But there is some intriguing science behind the reason why some wines like to catch their breath while others could care less.

So let’s do a quick science lesson. When the wine has had the chance to mix with the air a bit, the wine’s aromas become more pronounced and the tannins become more mellow. The result is a wine with less bite in the flavor (the tannins doing their job) and more flavorful.

So much for science. Let’s move on to art. No matter what anyone tells you, there is no optimum window of time to let wine breathe. Some wines are ready to be enjoyed in just 15 minutes. Older wines (8 years or older) are more finicky and have a very small window of time when they are perfectly aerated. Then the flavors quickly begin to flatten.

Most reds are good to go with 15 to 20 minutes of breathing. Younger wines and those with higher levels of tannin such as Cabernet Sauvignon might need up to an hour for them to soften enough to truly enjoy. The basic rule of thumb: the more tannin, the more the wine needs to breathe.

So, how do you properly let a wine aerate? The traditional choice is to uncork the wine and pour it into a decanter. Decanters are designed to have the proper surface area so the wine can come into contact with the right amount of air. If you don’t have a decanter, you can use an air infusion pump to introduce air directly into the bottle of wine. This does the same thing as the decanter, infusing air onto the surface of the wine.

If you have a decanter (you can get one at any reputable wine store or supply shop), be sure that it is clean before you add the wine. You don’t want your most recent purchase to be tainted with remnants of the last bottle you put in there or dust that may have collected between uses.

Not sure the wine is ready to drink yet? While it breathes, take a taste every five minutes. Once the character of the wine is to your liking, it’s ready to serve regardless of the time that has elapsed. This is particularly important with the older wines since the window is so small before it goes flat.

Finally, it’s time to drink the wine. If you don’t want to bother decanting, you can let the wine breathe in the wine glass itself. If you aerate the wine this way, be sure that you pour the wine into the center of the glass from 6” to 10” above. This allows air to mix with the wine as it falls. Then let the wine breathe peacefully until it has mellower to your liking.