It often improves the taste, but uncorking a bottle and letting it sit undisturbed for a while doesn’t accomplish your goal.
Have you ever wondered about this? It’s sort of like the advice of not going swimming right after you eat. It doesn’t make much sense at all, considering we often do strenuous things right after we eat—yet there’s something in the back of our mind that says, “What if it’s true?”
We’re going to apply some obvious common sense to this subject right at the start, and then we’ll get into what you really need to know about allowing wine to breathe.
You uncork a bottle of red wine and set it back down on the counter. There it sits, undisturbed, for 20 minutes or so. It’s breathing, right? Actually, it’s not.
Barely any of the wine has come into contact with air if all you did was uncork it. It’s for this reason that you also shouldn’t worry too much about recorking a bottle of wine that you don’t finish a bottle of wine. It’ll generally stay in the same drinkable condition for a couple of days after you open it—because very little of it is ever exposed to air.
There you go. That’s pretty much all you need to know about what does not happen when most people think they are allowing a bottle of wine to breathe.
Exposing wine to air for a short time allows it to oxidize. This process—known as oxidation—helps to soften the flavors and releases its aromas. Most red and white wines will improve when exposed to air for at least 30 minutes. The improvement, however, requires exposure to far more than the teaspoon or so exposed by simply uncorking the wine.
To accomplish this, you have to decant the wine. This process aerates the wine in its entirety.
You want the wine—all of it—to breathe or be exposed to air. This is the way to do it. Decanting wine serves a dual purpose. You’ll aerate the wine, and you’ll separate it from any sediment that may have formed during its production and aging.
White wines rarely produce sediment, but older reds and vintage ports continue to produce it as they age. It’s caused as color pigments and tannins bond together and drops to the bottom of the bottle. Stirred up, those sediments can insert a bitter flavor and gritty texture to the wine. They will also cloud the wine’s appearance.
Decanting a wine is a fancy way of saying you’re pouring it from the bottle into another vessel. As you pour the wine slowly but steadily from the bottle to a new vessel—say, a carafe—you’ll expose it to air and separate the sediment from the wine you’ll end up drinking.
It’s a gentle process, and you’ll likely sacrifice only about an ounce of the wine that’s filled with sediment. The magic will start to happen now that you’ve exposed the entire bottle of wine to air.
Young red wines can be high in tannins. This is especially true of Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux, and Red Zinfandel varieties. Aeration exposes the tannins to oxidation, which softens their mild bitterness. White wines don’t have tannins, so decanting them isn’t really necessary.
So, the whole “uncork it and let it breathe” thing isn’t doing too much. It doesn’t accomplish what you want. Decanting, on the other hand, is definitely much more effort than uncorking a bottle and setting it back down on the counter for 20 minutes. Is there a middle ground?
You can accomplish much of the same benefits of decanting by pouring the wine into your glass and gently swirling it each time before you take another sip.
Fragile wines Be careful with older vintages, which can be much more sensitive once opened and may lose fruit aromas much more quickly. ‘You could transform a great wine into vinegar by letting it breathe for too long,’ said Clément Robert MS. ‘Old vintages are the most fragile.
You uncork a bottle of red wine and set it back down on the counter. There it sits, undisturbed, for 20 minutes or so. It’s breathing, right? Actually, it’s not.
It’s a gentle process, and you’ll likely sacrifice only about an ounce of the wine that’s filled with sediment. The magic will start to happen now that you’ve exposed the entire bottle of wine to air.
Decanting a wine is a fancy way of saying you’re pouring it from the bottle into another vessel. As you pour the wine slowly but steadily from the bottle to a new vessel—say, a carafe—you’ll expose it to air and separate the sediment from the wine you’ll end up drinking.
Exposing wine to air for a short time allows it to oxidize. This process—known as oxidation—helps to soften the flavors and releases its aromas. Most red and white wines will improve when exposed to air for at least 30 minutes. The improvement, however, requires exposure to far more than the teaspoon or so exposed by simply uncorking the wine.
You can accomplish much of the same benefits of decanting by pouring the wine into your glass and gently swirling it each time before you take another sip.
On the part I quoted, I think of that when folks rhapsodize about the table wines on their travels in Europe. And I have no disdain for those at all, but how much of the positive reaction is what’s in the glass, versus being on vacation, relaxed, rested, happy, in a beautiful place, eating great food.
For the broader question you are asking there are many variables to apply about how much time a wine might need open for it to be at it’s best. The big ones are age, grape, region and winemaking. So asking about a two year old great growth Bordeaux is going to likely have a very different decanting consensus than a ten year old Central California Chardonnay. That is, if you can find a consensus.
If these were BTG pours, I typically ask them how long the bottle has been open. If it’s been a couple of hours and it’s drinking really well, I will know that I want to allow some air to my bottle. However, just opening the bottle X hours beforehand isn’t going to replicate the restaurant experience.
Figure out what works for you. My typical process when not decanting- I pop the cork and pour off a small glass, enough to drop the wine level in the bottle beneath the neck and shoulder which exposes more wine surface area to air. Leave the cork out. As a general rule, I give lighter wines 30 mins, heavier wines 60 mins. Younger, heavy wines get 120 mins. High acid, leaner wines I prefer below room temp so I might leave them in the cellar or cycle them in and out of the fridge to keep them cooler while they’re getting air. Lower acid, rounder wines I’m usually fine coming up to room temp.
With very young bottles I may aerate upon opening (I like a vinturi aerator). For old bottles it makes sense to decant for sediment. No question wines change in the glass – but also be very cognizant of the temperature of the wine. Sometimes I think it has more to do with the temperature than the aeration.
Letting Wine Breathe: How it Works & Why it Matters
FAQ
How long is too long to let wine breathe?
What happens if you decant wine for too long?
Can you over breathe wine?
How long can wine be exposed to air?
What happens if you let your wine breathe?
However, the strong smell of sulfur mixes with the taste of the wine. To remedy this, the process of decantation is introduced. Like the old practice, the smell of sulfur or fermentation can subside when you let your wine breathe. It leads to a purer fruity taste and a more robust wine flavor. How Long to Let Your Wine Breathe? 5 to 10 mins.
What are the chances of wine causing a hangover?
The probability that drinking wine will cause a hangover will have to do with the amount you drink if you ate something while drinking, and if you interspersed water in between. To have less hangover, it is recommended to drink slowly, not mix alcohol, and drink water in the middle of a glass of wine.
Does wine need to breathe?
If your mouth tingles all over and the wine is slightly bitter, maybe it seems tight, and you can’t really taste much else, it needs to breathe. This is a must read quick-guide if you’ve ever wondered how long or even if to let your wine breathe. We’re talking about red wine, white wine and even bubbles.
How long should you let a wine breathe?
5 to 10 mins. The time of letting your wine breathe can differ for every bottle. However, the color of the wine is a strong indicator of how long you should let it breathe. Most red wines contain more tannins than white wines, so letting them breathe for 20 to 30 minutes is needed. The longer duration removes as many tannins as possible.