Do you find this holds for whites or were you just speaking about reds (since this is the red burg thread)?
While Sarah has drunk many bottles over a much longer time span than I have, I will say that I can count on one hand how many times too much air has either shut down a young wine or broken an old wine. Whereas I have lost track of the myriad times a wine was served with too little air and didn’t blossom until the end of the night. But yet when you talk to most wine geeks, almost universally they are deathly afraid of giving a wine too much air. Doesn’t make much sense to me, so I do the opposite. YMMV
2 Likes
If I know the wine, or similar wines by that producer, then I apply what I’ve learned. It’s the default I question, because, unless you need to drink it this instant, like at a paired dinner, you can always give it more air, but you can never give it less. I’m not “deathly afraid” of it, I just recognize it as part of the equation to factor in.
I am also extremely sensitive to stale flavors in red wine, which can develop over the course of a few hours only. So I would almost never decant a red burgundy 4 or 5 hours in advance, with the same caveat of prior knowledge. It’s not a matter of killing the wine, just the appearance of stale aromas and tastes which mar wine for me. It doesn’t always happen, but it does often enough to be a real consideration.
What I am mostly getting at here is what I believe is a mistaken default belief that more air is the answer to wines that aren’t showing well.
1 Like
Reds. I’ve almost never seen a white burgundy shut down in the way we’re discussing.
3 Likes
100% Sarah.
1 Like
Agree with Sarah here.
I think a lot of the “more air” recommendations really come from Cabernet based wines. IME cab based wines really do benefit from air when not showing well. That is commonly the answer. Pinot and Nebbiolo? Not so much.
My unscientific experience is that young Pinot with whole cluster has a greater chance of shutting down with air. That may just be bias in my recollection given some experience with young Dujac.
4 Likes
For similar reasons as per Sarah comments, I’m never really trying to save any bottles for day 2 or day 3 unlike some others seem to do based on the tasting notes. I’m not experiencing wines getting spoiled, but there is just something happening to the flavor profile so that I’ve never had a wine, which I felt was better on the 2nd day.
1 Like
Same. Maybe it’s placebo (and if it is there’s little point in fighting it in my experience), but I’ve never had a day old bottle I preferred over the first day, and I no longer practice that method. For me the wine either pulls it together in several hours or it doesn’t at all. Not disputing others’ experiences, rather I haven’t yet experienced that magical 24-hour slow ox I see often on CellarTracker notes.
3 Likes
Just had a "17 Dujac Combottes that shut down so hard despite (maybe because of) time in the decanter. Thanks for this insight, gives me hope for a revisit X years from now
It just depends on the wine and how structured etc it is. As I said earlier 2017 tremblay Cabottes was much better in every day on day 2.
I hear you, but I’ve done it with (what I consider) highly structured wines and haven’t yet found a happy ending on the other side. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Most of the time it’s better to drink wines when they’re ready to drink. I don’t think aeration does much to improve wines that just aren’t ready. Sometimes the wines can get better with air, though.
2 Likes
A pretty subjective parameter, not that I disagree.
Yes - very subjective and also bearing in mind of aging curve of the drinker - which is from around 18 onward and luckily to 88 … 
Respectfully disagree. Perhaps you are not giving it enough time when you’ve tried this.
Always possible. I pour wines out after 24-48 hrs of air or more, so I have no idea if they turn a corner after that. 
1 Like
You have to wait three days!
7 Likes
That’s what I’ve been doing wrong all these years! 
For red burgs, think there’s a difference between how much air we’re talking about. Young wines (meaning less than 20 years old) will often improve with 30 minutes to 60 minutes of air
(vs pnp).
When that initial opening is done, you’ve gotten all the benefits and several hours of might make it worse.
1 Like
Most of the miraculous turnarounds I’ve seen with hours on end of air usually coincide with the wine being a big label and other wine being consumed in the interim. As I’ve noted in other threads, over thousands of bottles tried or consumed, and having worked a wine bar with open inventory, I can probably count on one hand bottles I thought were better on day two. And contrary to another poster, I’ve seen many 50+ year old wines fall apart over an evening with exposure to air. And yet even posting this I know there are many others on this thread ramping up their personal anecdotes, identifying wines they believe improve with days and days of decanting, wines they’ve had at tastings with winemakers that had been open for days that they just adored at the winery, etc.
This is such an unworthy issue to pursue further. There are whole threads on this, and opinions are so anecdotally driven for all parties involved, and even when blind studies are shown (there was a whole room full of somms who were served blind decanted and PNP wines and the PNP wines won big) they are nearly immediately discounted by opponents with patently obvious bias.
This is a very clear cut “you do you” wine consumption issue that focuses entirely on personal preference and confirmation bias.
6 Likes