How To And Why Let Wine Breathe?

The whole reason for letting your wine breathe is to maximize its exposure to the surrounding oxygen. By allowing wine to mix with the air, it will warm up a bit. This lets the wine’s aromas open up, that flavor characteristics will improve by softening and mellowing.

Do All Wines Need To Breathe?

No, not all. Red wines typically benefit most from breathing before drinking. However, there are a few select white wines that need to breathe, too.

As a rule of thumb, most wines need to breathe for about 15-20 minutes. But, if a wine is not aged and has high tannin levels, it’ll need more breathing time.

For example, a younger Cabernet Sauvignon will probably require about an hour for proper breathing and flavor softening to occur.

This is not to say you can’t drink it as soon as it’s been uncorked, but it’ll be better if you give it some time to breathe.

Aged or older wines, 8+ years, are a whole other animal. These wines will benefit most from opening and breathing, but they only have a small window of aeration time before the flavor profiles begin to deteriorate.

Some wrongly believe that simply uncorking the bottle and allowing it to sit is all it takes to breathe. This method doesn’t work. Simply put, there isn’t enough room at the opening of the bottle to allow adequate amounts of oxygen to aerate the wine.

So what’s the proper way to allow your wine to breathe? You’ve got two options: Decanter or Wine Glass.

Decanter
Use a decanter, a juice pitcher, or even a flower vase. Any clean, large container with a wide opening at the top will do. The increased opening is the key needed to allowing more air to make contact with your wine.

Wine Glass
Pour your wine into wine glasses and let it breathe. This certainly is a low-maintenance method and will work quite well. You want to be sure to pour your glass of wine at least 15 minutes before you’re ready to drink it, lest temptation get the best of you.

Here’s a tip for letting your wine breathe in the glass. Make sure you pour toward the center of the glass with at least 6 inches of fall from bottle to glass. This allows extra aeration during the actual pour.