Hello! I used to work in the wine business as a wine consultant for a high end retail store and restaurant. Early in my wine journey, I heard some folks talk about opening (not decanting) a bottle to let it breathe. I still hear and read about this on blogs, in amateur (non professional) reviiews and videos.
To me, the act of just popping the cork and exposing a minimal amount of wine to air does not allow it to breathe, aerate, or contribute anything to the wine. I read people saying things like “opened for two hours then decanted at the restaurant” or “opened to let it breathe before pouring a glass”.
What are your thoughts? I’ve never encountered a professional reviewer, taster, or winemaker who advocates simply opening a bottle to breathe. The science just doesnt support the purported benefits. Just to be clear, I am NOT talking about decanting.
In many cases I open the wine and pour off half a glass to drop the wine level below bottle neck and shoulder increasing the surface area of exposed wine from the size of a dime to the bottle’s full inner diameter. This is what I call “letting it breathe.”
Don’t know the science, but I recently slow-o a wine overnight and I felt it showed better than double decanting it in the morning. What I did was pour a small amount of wine out, left rest of bottle uncorked at cellar temp overnight, and re-added the small pour to it (which maybe I should have). So I added air to bottle in act of pouring the wine, and the surface exposure (which I understand exposes more than just the surface to oxygen as fluid molecules… are fluid).
This issue was addressed by Alex Bespalof in his NYTimes column back around 1978. His tasting indicated it was of no value to open up hrs ahead of time to allow the wine to “breathe”.
The article must be out there on the Internet somewhere.
Tom
Subjectively, it seems to work. We’ve blinded people between pop and pour bottles and 2-3 hour slow-ox bottles of the same wine and most experienced tasters prefer the slow-oxed bottles, for what it’s worth.
The science is pretty clear - merely opening the bottle does not have an effect on the wine. If there are off odors in the bottle (I.e. between the wine and cork, likely of greater volume the older the bottle), those will dissipate, but the difference between a few minutes of dissipation and a lot more is not meaningful. This is my understanding.
so you’re saying if you popped a cork and kept a wine open at cellar temperature for say, 24 hours, it would taste the same as a wine you opened at cellar temperature and kept there for 5 minutes?
Kerin O’Keefe is against decanting. The article below has bounced around on berserkers. I lean mostly in her camp.
On Christmas day I poured 750 of a magnum (2004 Brigaldara Amarone Case Vecie) into a decanter, and left the rest in the bottle. I poured sbs glasses of each over the course of 6 hours or so. I noticed pretty clear differences early on, but several hours later I miss could not tell which was which. Every wine is different though, not everyone plateaus like that for many hours, and when that plateau appears can change too.
I do decant, but not that often, as I have had better experience slow oxing. When it comes to older wines, they are a bit more fragile. Sometimes the wines evolve, decline, evolve, and decline again. Evolution is not 2 dimensional, you may get a period where the wine appears less tart, and more sweet and elegant, and then you may find another local optimum where the wine is more vibrant, fresh and fruity. Decanting is like fast forwarding, and it means risking missing information, that personally I don’t want to miss when drinking something I am excited about. If I am at a restaurant, this often all goes out the window and work with the time restraint, making my best guess.
It is also worth mentioning that the surface of the wine is not a stagnant thing. The higher the temperature, the more the molecules on the surface are exchanging places with other molecules below the surface.
And he only favored pulling the cork when dealing with very old wines that might have some funk that conceivably would blow off by just pulling the cork. These were wines that were too old to decant ahead.
The notion of “Audouzing” a young, or even 10-year-old, wine was silly and pointless, and nothing he would have advocated.
Alan Rath posted definitive data showing that virtually no oxygen penetrates the surface of a still liquid. The act of decanting – even gently pouring wine into a decanter – does introduce some oxygen, but just sitting in a decanter does not, so pulling a cork is not “slow-oxing” a wine. At best, it allows a little evaporation of some volatile funk.
Undoubtedly true over a certain period of time but if it were true over a long period there would be no point in closures except to prevent the wine spilling.
Personally I have never been convinced over any of the scientific documentation on this. I think there are too many assumptions made. Perhaps it is using the words “breathe” "“aerate” “slo-ox” that mislead us.
If I recall correctly, you have advocated that young wines can often improve on day 2 or day 3. If so, that is subject to the wine being opened, so what is different about that then a slow ox? 6 hours at room temperature or some greater time period in the fridge could have similar effects, whether it is related to oxygen or not no?