Give Your Reds Time to Breathe

“Give the wine time to breathe.” You hear the phrase frequently, but what exactly does it mean?

Breathing is simply allowing the wine to become exposed to the air, which opens up the wine’s flavors and aromas and makes it more enjoyable. This is especially useful for red wines – particularly newer vintages – because it softens their tannins, which sometimes interfere with the other characteristics of the wine. White wines, on the other hand, generally derive little or no benefit from having time to breathe and can be consumed immediately.

The best way to allow a wine to breathe is to simply pour it into a glass or decanter. This gives the wine more surface area and, therefore, more exposure to the air.

But make no mistake about initiating the breathing process; over time, air is the enemy of wine. And while giving a wine time to breathe is almost always initially a good thing, after a period of time the exposure of any amount of air to wine will lead to its deterioration. That’s why you can’t open a bottle, have a glass or two, recork it and then come back a week later expecting it to taste as good as it was before.

So how long it too long? Although some reds taste terrific right out of the gate I usually try to allow for at least an hour of breathing time. However, I’ve opened a few red wines, corked them and then revisited them after a couple of days and found them to taste even better. But keep in mind that this is usually the exception, not the rule.

Overall, I think that red and white wines should be consumed within a day or two of opening. Any length of time beyond that will almost certainly result in an inferior tasting wine. If you can’t bear to pour the wine out, then try putting it in the refrigerator and use it to cook with at a later date.