The myth of letting wines breathe

[DougS]

Of the wines I drink regularly, I find young Rieslings to benefit the most from aeration, and it often takes a LOT longer than 5 minutes. I think this is mainly allowing sulfur compounds to dissipate. I’ve had several older wines that have also very clearly benefited. Some aged whites have gone from near-dead to very enjoyable with air.

[S_Stevenson]

@Nolan E

I only decant for sediment anymore.

If you decant a wine and ignore it for 2 hours you miss a lot of great information.

This^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Nick_Ryan]

Article is the purest bullcrap for young wines. Every time I go to a new-release Burgundy/Bordeaux tasting I force myself to let a glass evolve for 20 minutes because the first impression is frequently of a closed and unforgiving wine, and the last impression much different. Cali wines are more forgiving but also usually need decanting.

[Stuart_BeauneHead_Niemtzow]

I think you get more from most wines…by letting them aerate for a long time. However, if you don’t have time…for a longer aeration, pop and pour (after getting rid of sediment) is preferable. A two hour decant, for most red wines is likely to cause the wine to close up; often it takes less time to close up. So…if I don’t have time for a long one, I don’t risk the short one…but not for the “information” I “miss”…just because if I drink it then, it is likely to show its worst.

For some whites, particularly, imo, chablis and condrieu (and to a much lesser degree with Alsace riesling; I know no other riesling well enough), and Cote de Beaune whites…a long aeration is necessary to bring out the most charming, informative stuff…often the next day when it shows its best.

For me, in sum, it’s pop and pour or long aeration…a two hour one or less is likey to make the wine show less. I’d rather just nurse it for those two hours…and glean that limited information…rather than tsate tannins and acidity until the wine really opens up.

I opened a 1995 Daniel Rion Clos Vougeot Saturday. I aerated it for several hours because it was tight and closed at first. It was OK Saturday night. Last night, two days later, it was the best RB I’d had in 2016…it all came together so beautifully, sitting in decanter for two days. To me, the “information” is that the wine is a beauty and will last forever (as will most RB from “good” vintages). Had I deduced the information in the first two hours after cleaning the wine and decanting it…I’d have thought it was maybe ok, but nothing special…and did think that.

I doubt most people ever taste wine aerated as long as I did last night…but…the evidence can be compelling when it turns a good wine into a spectactular wine. And, it doesn’t work all the time, of course…but…more times than not the long aeration reveals a wine that never reveals itself without that long aeration, though it is almost always pleasant within 15mins-1/2 hour of opening.

Mythology 102

[Daniel_Moritz]

@Jay T.

I don’t really know whether there is a point in arguing with the results – which have been discussed here in the past on at least a few occasions. But it’s hard to square with my own experience and that of just about everyone I know. I almost always prefer young wines after decanting. I drink a lot of older Nebbiolo, and it is almost universally the case that I prefer the wines several hours after decanting. In fact, they are often completely uninteresting immediately after opening, thin, and dominated by acid. While Bordeaux acts a bit differently – it’s often much more accessible than Nebbiolo upon opening – I’ve enjoyed enough bottles over several hours where the last glass was the best to make we wonder what the hell happened in the Decanter tasting.

Also, someone’s qualifications as an “esteemed judge” don’t seem at all relevant on this question. That said, maybe the wines in the 1997 Decanter tasting really did taste better immediately after opening. Interesting, if true. But it’s hard to see what the useful takeaway is, other than that wine is highly variable, and unfortunately it’s impossible to create universal rules that maximize enjoyment.

Totally agree on the old Nebbiolo front. Almost always much better after hours in the decanter.

[Mark_C_Johnson]

Yet another article from Randy Caparoso! This from 2012. Two in one day!!

[Thomas_Keim]

@mike pobega

Well, in the grand scheme of things, they are probably correct to a point as most of the world wines are made accessible and in a forward style so they are probably not speaking of many of the wines we collectively enjoy.

That’s the way I see it. But there are obviously exceptions. Nebbiolo for example - tasting quite a bit of 2010s and 2011 Baroli lately and they’ve needed at least a couple hours to open up -

And this experiment wouldn’t work on much older wines very well. I had a '55 Beychevelle a couple years ago that smelled like kerosene for the first hour plus - after two hours it totally changed into chocolate and black fruit -

[Ken_Zinns]

@Ed Kurtzman

Now that the breathing myth is busted, I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on the myth of the wet cork. That’s the one where people look at me like I’m from outer space when I bring it up, but I don’t believe bottles need to be on their sides or upside down while aging. In the tens of thousands of bottles I’ve opened, I’ve yet to see a dry cork that was so dry it came out of the bottle easily. Just the opposite. You could push a completely soaked cork into the bottle with your pinkie, but a dry cork keeps wine in the bottle and air out better than a wet cork.

I’m with you on this, Ed. I have some bottles stored on their sides, some vertical with neck down and some with neck up. I’ve never had any issue with the ones stored neck up, even after some have been that way for years.

[Stuart_BeauneHead_Niemtzow]

i think the main difference is that with a younger wine, you don’t have to worry or monitor. With an older wine you have to think about it more and monitor it…and develop your own comfort level with the aeration time.

What Tom is describing with the '55 happens to me all the time (just with older wines, not ancient wines)…and I have a comfort level letting them aerate. But, I do monitor them and look at really extended aeration as more of a science experiment that never ceases to surprise me.

Never thought much about the wet cork issue, though have pushed many wet corks through…and had many dry one stick to the sides and create dry cork rafts in the wine from trying to get them out.

[Drew_Goin]

@S. Stevenson

@Rich Brown

@Drew Goin

We used to blow bubbles in our wine glasses with straws to open up/oxygenate the wine! It works beautifully, but you kind of lose points on sophistication!

Now that…is freaking awesome!

You don’t happen to have any old home movies kicking around that you can share, do you Drew??

First, there was the Audouze Method…Now, prepare yourselves for… “The Awe Drew Method”!

[Jay_Miller]

The sad thing is that there are people who will believe this.

[C_Mc_Cart]

What a strange article.
I disagree with the panel results. Like many here, indiv wines require indiv responses at different stages.

I’ve had lots of bottles that showed best straight after being popped & poured, and many that required 48-72 hours to show their best (aged Sauternes, Savennieres). Most are somewhere in the 20 minutes to 4 hour range. I decant to “breathe” more now than I ever have.
I generally don’t decant wines that will go into large bowl glasses (like red burgs).
I do like the slow-ox method for older (35yrs+) bottles, but not all the time.

So, to summarize - Decanting = yes or no, but only some of the time.

[S_Stevenson]

@Jay Miller

The sad thing is that there are people who will believe this.

I’ve been drinking high end wines for 40 years, been to tastings around the world and have hosted tastings as well. I believe it. 5 minutes in the glass(if that) is all the ‘breathing’ any wine needs. The rest is the brain playing tricks/psychological agendas. Read the studies.

[Matthew_King]

This thread reminds me of the William Goldman quote about predicting success at the Hollywood boxoffice:

“Nobody knows anything… Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.”

There are simply no axioms about when to open a bottle of wine or how long to let it breathe …

[Paul_Flynn]

Neil deGrasse Tyson did a bit on this in one of his Star Talk Radio shows. He said it’s not about letting oxygen in, it’s about letting other gases out. He suggested that using a blender was the most efficient method.

[Jay_Miller]

@S. Stevenson

@Jay Miller

The sad thing is that there are people who will believe this.

I’ve been drinking high end wines for 40 years, been to tastings around the world and have hosted tastings as well. I believe it. 5 minutes in the glass(if that) is all the ‘breathing’ any wine needs. The rest is the brain playing tricks/psychological agendas. Read the studies.

These studies contradict my personal experience big time. I’ve had young rieslings that show nothing on the first day and blossom on day 2 or 3.

[Sarah_Kirschbaum]

@S. Stevenson

@Jay Miller

The sad thing is that there are people who will believe this.

I’ve been drinking high end wines for 40 years, been to tastings around the world and have hosted tastings as well. I believe it. 5 minutes in the glass(if that) is all the ‘breathing’ any wine needs. The rest is the brain playing tricks/psychological agendas. Read the studies.

Why should reading the studies, no matter what they purport to “prove,” change the way you approach drinking wine? It’s not about getting it right, in some sort of objective sense on which you are being graded. It’s about following an approach that gives you the most pleasure and enhances your experience of the wines. If wines taste better to me after a long/short/no decant, then why should I drink them a different way just because a study shows my impressions are all in my head?

If you have never experimented with decant times for different wines, then by all means read the studies and the blogs and the posts here. It’s one of the fun things about this hobby - the experimenting and learning. Try for yourself and see what works for you, as there is clearly no consensus here. Given that there is no down or upside to any approach - no health hazards, no added costs, no risk unless you’re not paying attention to the wine - the one and only thing that should determine how you treat your wine is how you and those you are drinking with like it best. Who cares if it’s in the brain or not? It is most certainly in the mouth, when all is said and done.

[George_Chadwick]

In my experience opening a bottle and letting it breathe and then slowly drinking it until it’s empty and then going to the cellar to get another bottle always improves the flavor of the second bottle.

[Dennis_Kanagie]

How much air a wine needs isn’t the same for every bottle. In my limited experience compared to these experts, I’ve found a properly aged red wine is less likely to need serious decanting time. In that case I only decant for sediment. Often the first few glasses are poured within minutes. Whites are different, or at least the sweeter whites are - they seem to need a couple hours to a couple days to reach their potential.

[mark_rudner]

@George Chadwick

In my experience opening a bottle and letting it breathe and then slowly drinking it until it’s empty and then going to the cellar to get another bottle always improves the flavor of the second bottle.

sheer brilliance