Why are you supposed to let a bottle of wine “breathe” after opening it?
In: 56
There’s tons of reasons all which vary depending on the type of wine itself and how much air you are adding.
1 balance: one of the major aspects of a wine is to get it in good balance , this means once it’s been the glass the smells and tastes should complement each other in nice layers of complexity. When a wine is first poured however usually every aroma is going to be more concentrated then was intended in practice , letting breathe helps it to re obtain that balance again
2 tannins: there’s tons of different compounds in wine , one of the major groups is called tannins. Tannins can do everything from add colour to adding flavour and impacting the mouth feel of the wine. One thing about most tannins however is they are very bitter and they physically dry your mouth out (astringency). If you ever licked a wooden spoon you notice it felt like your mouth was dry? That’s wood tannins primarily causing that. One thing about tannins though is that oxygen is good at changing them, colour tannins for instance turn brown from oxygen after time hence why oxidized wine or an apple slice on the counter goes brown. The tannins in solution of the wine are no different and that aerating can help to soften them up a bit or make them less astringent, and since red wine has so much more then we sometimes aerate reds significantly to help “soften” the wine.
3 preference and complexity: two people will have very different preferences for wine and how much aeration is best will vary as well. I don’t like heavily oaky wines so if I had a heavily packed wine I would aerate it significantly to help soften it up to a point I could try and enjoy it , meanwhile someone who actually likes that would aerate it very little. The same can be said for complexity , I really like complexity in a wine so I don’t want to “soften” the complexity and make it more approachable but for my wife , she gets overwhelmed so I for sure will aerate stuff for her to make it easier for her to enjoy.
Latest Answers