Wine needs to "breathe" for 30 minutes?

whoaru99

Epic Member
Last night with dinner we had a red wine "made from Frontenac grapes, produced by whole berry fermentation and aged in French Oak".

The GF opened the bottle and directly poured us some wine. After a few tastes she asked my opinion. "Ehhh...", was my response, "it has somewhat of a funky taste to me."

After a few more tastes I read the label on the bottle and it says "Best if allowed to breathe for thirty minutes before drinking."

I hadn't really planned on having more due to the funky flavor. However, I decanted off the rest of the bottle and gave it the full 30 minutes. It went from "no more of that" to, "hey, that's not too bad, I'll have more".

Why?
 
FWIW, http://www.winespectator.com/drvinny/show/id/40718

Dear Dr. Vinny,


In a recent question you talked about a wine “breathing.” What does that mean, exactly? And how long should a wine “breathe”?


—Krishnan, India


Dear Krishnan,


To say a wine is “breathing” is to say a finished wine is aerating, or being exposed to oxygen. A wine is “alive” in the sense that there are constant chemical reactions taking place, but wine doesn’t breathe in the sense that you and I do. I think the term appeals to the romance of some wine lovers. Who doesn’t want to give life to a wine gasping for breath? Let it breathe!


“Breathing” begins the moment a cork is pulled or a twist off is uncapped. But if that’s all you do, the amount of surface area that the wine has that can be exposed to oxygen is only the size of a nickel. For more aeration, pouring a glass will help, as will swirling that glass around. To maximize the “breathing” phenomenon, though, you’ll want to use a decanter.


Typically, as a wine is exposed to oxygen, it becomes more expressive, releasing aromas and flavors. But aeration can also expose flaws, or make an older, more delicate wine deteriorate more quickly. It can also take the bubbles out of a bubbly. You will probably notice the effects of aeration within minutes, but some wines will continue to evolve in your glass or decanter for an hour or more. Each wine is different, but typically young, tannic red wines need the most air to become expressive.


—Dr. Vinny
 
Sometimes you have to give it mouth to mouth, and swig it straight from the bottle...(hic)... :beerchug: (couldn't fine a wine emoticon).

Lee.
 
Last night with dinner we had a red wine "made from Frontenac grapes, produced by whole berry fermentation and aged in French Oak".

The GF opened the bottle and directly poured us some wine. After a few tastes she asked my opinion. "Ehhh...", was my response, "it has somewhat of a funky taste to me."

After a few more tastes I read the label on the bottle and it says "Best if allowed to breathe for thirty minutes before drinking."

I hadn't really planned on having more due to the funky flavor. However, I decanted off the rest of the bottle and gave it the full 30 minutes. It went from "no more of that" to, "hey, that's not too bad, I'll have more".

Why?
You didn't list the label, but I'll assume it's a red wine because of the grape used. Red wines need oxygen as those above have stated. Also, most red wines have sulfites added as a preservative. Aeration helps reduce those. Decanting is the best way to aerate wine.
 
You didn't list the label, but I'll assume it's a red wine because of the grape used. Red wines need oxygen as those above have stated. Also, most red wines have sulfites added as a preservative. Aeration helps reduce those. Decanting is the best way to aerate wine.

I'm not sure of the exact chemistry in the bottle but probably what's happening here is that there are volatiles dissolved in the wine that are released into the air. Sulfite would be an ionic salt and not subject to volatilization at least when it's originally put in...however its mode of action is to react with other stuff as an oxidizer, and it becomes reduced in the process. So it would not surprise me if, for example, there were sulfides formed in the bottle. Those would be not only gaseous but a little funky too.
 

We use one in a pinch but I like decanting better. Plus it impresses the guests . LOL.

I use one like this

41oGrjAMr2L.jpg
 
Here's my decanter. 2000ml Erlenmeyer flask. :)

Does double duty as I use it on a stir plate for making yeast starters for my homebrew too.

20170519_122126.jpg
 
Being the wine expert that I'm not, I can honestly say there are too many variables to make a blanket judgement.

I baby sat our Sisters Joens wine (see my avatar) from the day we picked the grapes to the day it was bottled. It has all been stored together, and the cases I have in my wine fridge are exactly as they were the day they were bottled on April 26, 2016. Wifey and I open a bottle on the 26th of each month just to check the aging process.

Sometimes, we decant it, but usually not. Same with aeration - sometimes yes, sometimes no. My taster isn't sophisticated enough to really tell a difference, but I do know that sometimes the first taste is a disappointment, but as I drink more, it gets better. I think what's been going on in your mouth prior to the first sip has a lot to do with the taste, as well as what you can smell at the time you drink it.

That being said, I don't think aeration or decanting can cause any harm.
 
I think it is the other way around. Newer wines tend to be fruitier without the funk that aeration helps remove.

I always went with the newer the wine, the more aeration required. Sort of like speeding up the aging process. New vintages tend to be a bit rough, yet by decanting and exposing to O2, it can "simulate" the aging in the bottle. YMMV. Decanting an older wine is typically done to get it off the lees that have settled out over the years.
 
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