Old traditions die hard, and old traditionalists die harder. One old tradition that is dying very slowly is the one that says "Red wines have to breathe for an hour or so before being served." Another is that "white wines do not need breathing."
Red wines
It has been believed for a long time that red wines need to stand open in the bottle, with the cork out, to permit unpleasant vapors to escape, to "open up the bouquet," and to soften tannin in the wine.
The truth is that this method of breathing does just about nothing, other than let a cool bottle from the cellar warm to room temperature. As we learned in high school physics, warm molecules move faster than cool molecules, and faster-moving molecules escape the surface more often. This is what makes a warm wine more aromatic than a bottle fresh from a cool cellar.
Given the relatively small surface area of the wine scrunched up in the neck of the bottle, about the diameter of a dime, as compared to the volume of the rest of the wine in the bottle, it is impossible for much aeration to take place or for many bad smells to escape.
If you need to aerate a wine, the best method is to dump it into a decanter. Pouring exposes far many more of the wine's molecules to air, and the splashing around in the decanter is a effective aerator. This is a good idea when the wine has odd or unpleasant smells, but if there is nothing wrong with the wine, aeration can only be to its detriment. Once the aromatic compounds begin to evaporate, and they do the minute the cork is pulled, there is no way to get them back into the bottle. They are gone forever, and there are just so many aromatics in the bottle.
In order to prevent the loss of pleasant smells, you should serve most sound wines as soon as they are opened. Only unsound wines need aeration in order to reduce the presence of unwanted aromatic compounds to a level below our threshold of observance. It is this phenomenon which many people think is the "blossoming" of the wine. Actually it is the decrease of objectionable or interfering odors to a level where we are less aware of them.
The other major reason people believe wines should be breathed is to lessen the bitter taste and powdery sensation of tannin. This just does not happen. Tannin will be lessened by aeration, but it will take far longer than an hour or two. This has been proven by chemical analyses at the University of California at Davis.
White wines
Because white wines do not have much tannin it has long been believed that white wines do not need breathing. White wines are not fermented with the skins of the grapes for long, and tannin is mainly an extract of the grape skins. But, as it happens, white wines need aeration more frequently than red wines.
Winemakers use more of the preservative sulfur dioxide (SO2) in white wine than they do in reds. This prevents the wine from browning,as well as unwanted fermentations in the bottle, since whites are frequently bottled with a small amount of residual sugar. Amounts of SO2 are rarely high enough to smell or taste in the wine, but occasionally a winemaker will use too much, and the results is a pungent, penetrating, just-struck-match smell.
People who live in cities have a higher sensitivity threshold to SO2 because it is present in smoggy air. Therefore they are often less sensitive to sulfur smells in wine. But because white wines are somewhat less fragrant than red wines -- especially chilled whites in which the cold molecules move sluggishly -- this flaw can stand out. Fortunately, SO2 is so volatile that only a few minutes of aeration (rarely more than 30 minutes) are all that are necessary to knock this malodorous sensation below threshold.
Which brings us to a point about aeration. If you have a wine that displays off smells and flavors, the best way to aerate is to pour a glass. In a normal wine glass, half filled, a small amount of wine is in contact with a large volume of air, much more than when it is sitting there in the neck of the bottle. Aeration can be speeded by swirling the wine in the glass. The wine then coats the sides of the glass in a thin layer and is able to release its undesirable molecules.
Bespaloff's experiments
From a scientific standpoint, I had often questioned this breathing business. From the practical standpoint, I had always noticed that the more I drank, the better it tasted. Then some restauranteur suggested many of the reds they served did not need breathing (a phenomenon you've probably noticed because you seldom have an hour to let reds stand around). Then in the spring of 1977, Alexis Bespaloff, now deceased, but at the time wine critic for New York Magazine, broke open the can of worms. He had been told by one of the most respected winemakers of Bordeaux, Professor Emile Peynaud, that simply opening a bottle did not aerate the wine.
Bespaloff set out to test this heresy and arranged a series of tastings of many wines, using four bottles each of the same wine. One bottle was poured into a carafe an hour before serving. The second bottle was uncorked for an hour and left in the bottle. The third was poured into a carafe just before serving, and the fourth was opened and poured immediately.
He tested the wines on Paul Draper, winemaker of Ridge Vineyards; Robert Mondavi of Robert Mondavi Winery; Alexis Lichine, French vineyard owner and author; Kevin Zraly, sommelier of Windows on the World, NYC; and Pierre Tari, owner of Château Giscours. The wines were mostly from the properties each was affiliated with and ranged in age from three to eleven years old. They came from Bordeaux, California and Burgundy. When he was finished, Bespaloff was surprised to find that not only was Peynaud correct about leaving a wine to stand in an open bottle, but the wine most preferred in a large number of cases was the one simply opened and poured!
A similar test was run in Italy by a number of winemakers and merchants. They used Italian wines and Bordeaux as old as 14 years. Some were left to breathe over-night, as old Italian tradition. They, too, liked the fresh bottle the best. A similar experiment in England with auctioneer Michael Broadbent and two wine writers, however, yielded inconclusive results. As the debate heated up, California winemakers and legendary wine experts Maynard Amerine and Andre Tchelistcheff concurred with Bespaloff. Burgundy producer Louis Latour agreed as well.
For saving us the effort of opening and decanting long in advance, Bespaloff received the brunt of some unfair criticism, mostly from dogmatic types who have never tried his simple experiment. This writer has tried it, and my findings were identical to his.
Decanting is useful for obtaining clear wine poured off the top of foul-tasting sediment, which appears naturally with age and in the case of some wines with flaws, decanting is useful in diminishing them. However, in the case of most wines, pulling and pouring is the best practice.
Try Bespaloff's test for yourself and let me know the results.
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Anonymous
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I am a professor of chemistry, an a winemaker and I disagree, sorry!
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b.beckschwarte
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Untitled
“Normal” red wines have to get their quantity of air (oxidation) before giving their full pleasure to the wine lover. It depends. But not too much.. Some very old wines may suffer in short time from too much aeration. Very old wines so should be openend and immediately checked: an experienced lover of old wines can get an estimation how long the aeration phase should run, and how long the wine can get consumed before it will turn to black mud water.
Some red wines are really complicated: on the one hand they have to get their quantum of oxidation to be really good, BUT they die after one or two days as a result of the oxydes taken over.
No wine lover in the whole world needs more than one single caraffe: the amount of oxides needed to result in this pleasure-spending chemical turn depends on the surface exposed to oxidation/air. The so called "double decanting method" is the favourite of very many red wine lovers. It means to empty the bottle of wine into a caraffe - during the caraffe filling the wine gets a reasonable amount of air - and then pour it back in the original bottle, maybe bottle cleaned in the meantime or maybe not.
(Decanting has a double effect / intention: 1- to give air to the wine surface, 2- to separate amounts of non-liquid substances, = “to decante” as a mechanical method of separation, liquid from other parts.)
The chemical turn in the wine molecules is only performed by the oxid molecules which were taken by the liquid. With the wine resting still in the caraffe there is no chance for further exposition to oxide: immediately it will have a small layer of damping alcohol molecules above of the wine surface which protects the wine from further oxidation. Only if the caraffe is moved there is a small amount of further oxidation with the wine.
All chemical turn is performed from the oxide amount taken over while being poured -within someseconds or half a minute, when being poured back (method “DD”) maybe a minute or so.
If the caraffe ist resting near a cold wall / kitchen outside wall or in the cellar / the wine will change, yes, as a result of oxidation but will oxidate only by the molecules taken over while being poured into another caraffe or bottle.
= = =
There are also some types of wine which behave in another way. Most prominent exampe is Sherry / Jerez wine. These wines are treated along of years WITH oxidation access. The normal red wines are treated (after fermentation) with a shutoff of air and oxides: “airless”, most of the time. The winemakers try to keep the vats full of liqud, to prevent oxidation. “normal” ripe wine first “develops” with oxidation, then it will die. Beneath of the Sherries also are some special sweet "thick" wines which have no increase in pleasure by being exposed to the air.
Time schedules to give ar to the wine depends on a lot of factors:
- grapes
- region
- yearly changing wheater characteristics
- age of the wine
- quality of the making of the wine,. i.e. excellent young wines need a lot of time to develop, maybe some ten hours with a 1988 first growth from Bordeaux, down to some 20 minutes with a young Cru Bourgeois Bordeaux wine from the right bank in 2001 or 1999.
Some experiences and examples:
1- a 1990 Chateau Montrose (2nd growth) was best after 4 hours of developing.
2- A 1990 La Dame de Montrose (2nd wine of the same chateau) needed 2 hours for a fine development.
3- Both wine rests converted to black water, undrinkable after 2 days of having developed.
4- Consequence: Only give air to a Montrose to that quantity you then will drink within the next 36 hours. These wines are “air-eager”. Very very good with the right exposure time, lousy when being opened fresh, and also lousy when “time has gone”.
5- A 1999 La Tour de By, Cru Bourgeois Superior from Begadan, Haut-Medoc is OK after 15 minutes with air. It will also be a nice wine after six days in a caraffe in a cold place, unmoved. So this wine is not “air-eager”.
6- A 1978 first growth Chateau Mouton was exposed to the air a Friday 1 clock p.m., to be consumed in the evening 7 p.m. It was probably 3 or 4 hours too much aeration - the wine was converted to undrinkalbe black water. This wine has died “in absence”.
(..& pls. excuse my bad english. ;-))
Regards
Bernd AB
Anonymous
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Great
colman stephenson
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Yes, but....
On the other hand you make your point about reds too strongly when you say the softening of tannin with air 'just does not happen'. (Indeed you contradict yourself in the next sentence). An excessively tannic wine is often more drinkable the following day (ie with 24 hours of exposure). Although more subtle phenolics may have been lost (if they existed in the first place) the improved over all balance can result in a net improvement. This is much more relevant for mid-level old-world wines then top flight wines (which are well balanced) and new world wines which tend to have less tannin in the first place.
I don't doubt the UC Davis study about the chemical effect of air on tannin, but we are talking about the sensation of tannin, which is a different matter.
Its no surprise that the wonderful wines of Draper, Lichine and Mondavi do not need air. But there are plenty of somewhat tough, but very enjoyable, Italian or Rhone wines which would benefit from being open overnight.
Totally agree about the white wines.
Andy
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New Scientist Article
Their conclusion was the same: decant the wine first.
Roger Browne
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Thanks, this is what I've long suspected!