Does a wine need to "breathe" before it's served?
Hello there! I'm Dr. Vinifera, but you can call me Vinny. Ask me your toughest wine questions, from the fine points of etiquette to the science of winemaking. And don't worry, I'm no wine snob—you can also ask me those "dumb questions" you're too embarrased to ask your wine geek friends! I hope you find my answers educational, empowering and even amusing. And don't forget to check out my most asked questions and my full archives for all my Q&A classics.
Dear Dr. Vinny,
Does a wine need to "breathe" before it's served? If yes, for how long, and for what reason?
—Alan, Brookings, Ore.
Dear Alan,
When wine lovers talk about a wine “breathing,” that’s just another way of saying that the wine is being exposed to oxygen, or is being aerated. Wine is “alive” in the sense that there are chemical reactions taking place, but it doesn’t breathe the way you or I do.
"Breathing" begins the moment any bottle of wine is opened. But the wine in an open bottle has limited surface area exposed to air. For more exposure to oxygen, you can pour it in a glass, swirl that glass around, or decant the wine to really maximize the exposure to oxygen. More surface area, more breathing.
Most wines will become more expressive, particularly aromatically, with some exposure to air—a process that's often described as “opening up.” Breathing can also expose flaws you didn’t notice at first, or alleviate them by allowing them to "blow off." Swirling a wine in your glass is particularly important for younger, tannic wines, which will show the most dramatic difference (nothing happens to the tannins themselves, just how the are presented). Older, more mature wines will typically deteriorate much faster.
How long should you let a wine breathe? It depends on the wine and your personal preferences. Most wines will remain good for hours after they've been opened, and you don’t need to worry about it—the whole time you are enjoying a wine, it’s breathing. But if you’re considering keeping an open bottle of wine overnight or longer, it will start to fade and take on nutty, earthy notes. Do your best to limit leftover wine’s exposure to oxygen, and keep it in the refrigerator to slow down oxidation.
—Dr. Vinny
