Why aerate and what happens when wine breathes

Aerating is exposing the wine to the air, causing a chemical reaction that changes the wine’s flavor and dispels unpleasant aromas in some cases. During this period of letting the wine breathe, two essential processes occur, evaporation and oxidation, improving the quality of some wines. Evaporation transitions in some liquid to vapor, and let volatile compounds evaporate like ethanol from the wine enhancing its taste, Using an aerator is also another method of accomplishing this, but not as effective while quicker. Yet, too much oxidation ruins any wine. All this leaves us still in a quandary as to aerate or not and if so how long.

First, let me state that there are no absolute rules to this process, only general guidelines that I Can give you. Sometimes it boils down to personal taste. The age, type of grape, and color are the most common factors in making most decisions, but not all, leaving the murkiness in the decision making. Swirling the wine in your glass is particularly important for younger, tannic wines. On the on the hand, older, ten years and up wines are more delicate and tend to deteriorate much faster.

Frist, let’s start with white wines. Should they be aerated? As a rule, no, you can open and drink. However, when it comes to Chardonnay and Albarino, this changes. An aerator or a fifthteen to twenty minute decant will improve them. Age of a wine is another telling factor with those aged four or more years often needing little air.

Next, we’ll take the red wines. The drier the wine, the more lime it needs to complete this process. The higher the tannins, the same applies. Young reds, especially those high in tannins need time to breathe, differing in time from a minimum of a half-hour to an hour. Some like Tropic Malbec and Saldo Zinfandel can take up to two hours to achieve their finest quality. Older wines, those ten years or older, should be opened and drunk in the same day. To eliminate the deteriorating of your unfinished wine is relatively simple. You can either buy an inexpensive wine pump for eight-twelve dollars with its rubber corks, or a wine opener that replaces the original cork back in the bottle, I will warn you now that you can talk to ten different wine experts and receive slight variations from all of them. These differences come from two things, traditional snobbery and individual taste.