19
Jan
Taste a wine before aerating it and then decide whether or not to proceed. Most wines will remain good for hours after theyve been opened and you dont need to worry about itthe whole time you are enjoying a wine its breathing.
Most people dont aerate wines.
How long should wine breathe. Typically red wines are the ones to benefit most from breathing before serving. However there are select whites that will also improve with a little air exposure. In general most wines will improve with as little as 15 to 20 minutes of airtime.
It depends on the wine and your personal preferences. Most wines will remain good for hours after theyve been opened and you dont need to worry about itthe whole time you are enjoying a wine its breathing. With very old red wine there is a danger that prolonged decanting will completely break down the structure.
You should decant it for no more than half an hour and enjoy it immediately. Only the finest vintages will last in the bottle and old wine is not necessarily always a pleasant experience. Aeration should be a process to gently wake up the wine and help it to rise and shine in the glass.
It might have been sleeping for a long time in bottle lets be careful with the old ones. The timing on the process requires a bit of experience probing and sensibility. If oxygenation is too much for the wine it will let some of the aromas.
You could allow 30 minutes to an hour for the wine to breathe on its own but aeration greatly speeds the process so you dont have to wait to drink the wine. Taste a wine before aerating it and then decide whether or not to proceed. Letting the bottle breathe is a common practice that actually causes you to miss out on the full wine experience.
Heres why you should avoid doing it. Letting a wine breathe is believed to allow the wine to soften and express its aroma and flavors but the process and devices used to breathe wines are greatly misunderstood. It isnt necessary to let all wines breathe and in fact allowing aged wines to breath too long can result in the wine going dead.
Well look at whats happening in. Letting a wine breathe brings out its flavor some wines simply taste better with aeration. By mixing air with the liquid the aroma of the wine can be fully appreciated.
It has been said that wine tastes smoother after being left to breathe but its important to get the length of breathing time right. The least efficient way of letting wine breathe is the simply open the bottle and let it stand. For some wines the standing might be for eight hours or more so it.
Answer 1 of 1. Lets first define breathe. Opening a bottle of wine and letting it sit there for however long before serving it is not letting it breatheIf you do that the only part of the wine that has any contact with air is the surface- and thats not enoughYouve got to let air get to the rest of the wine as well why is why pouring it into a big glass so you can swirl it around.
Mature red wines generally those over 8 years old are mellow and need to breathe for approximately 30 minutes if at all. Very old red wines require no aeration. Wines with delicate bouquets such as white wine rose champagne and sparkling wines are not aerated and are opened just before service.
Most people dont aerate wines. Many people that do just assume that they only need to let red wines breathe before consumption. And for the most part if you let most white wines aerate too long the taste is completely ruined.
However there is a group of white wines that you should definitely decant. You will probably notice the effects of aeration within minutes but some wines will continue to evolve in your glass or decanter for an hour or more. Each wine is different but typically young tannic red wines need the most air to become expressive.
How to let a wine breathe depends on the age of the wine and how long it has been in the bottle. A younger wine say less than 3 years old does not need much if any time. A wine 10 or more years old will benefit from an hour of air time.
How the wine gets air can also differ.