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| I have just been having a discussion about whether a Red wine should be left to breathe before drinking.
I had always assumed that all red wine benefited from being left for a least an hour before it was drunk. However I have just read and been told that that is actually rubbish.
The amount of air that comes in contact with a wine from the neck of a bottle is so tiny that it will have no effect.
In fact the only wines that need to breathe are old Red wines (Bordeaux, Burgundy) or wines with "funny" smells or high tannin content (like very young wines). In many cases airing wine can actually be detremental to the taste.
If you do want to let a wine breathe pour it into a decanter. The swilling it gets as it pours into the decanter will aerate the wine and then it is ready to drink, no need to leave it standing. | |
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Old wines, but also wines in PET-bottles. I never took any of those bottles as it shuddered me. But recently I bought such a bottle. And read on the bottle that you best decant the wine and then from the carafé do it into your glass. The success is astonishing. Really good. But of course no having it stand around.