Do You Have to Let Your Wine “Breathe” Before Drinking It?
Wine Rules: Take ’em or Break ’em?
There seems to be a lot of should and should not when it comes to wine. The first rule should always be this: if you like it, drink it. That said, there are some common wine myths and so-called rules that are hard to ignore (for regular and less-frequent wine drinkers alike). Is there any validity to them? Each month we’ll tackle a new rule, chat with local wine professionals and share opinions on some of the most common wine rules out there — will we take them or break them?
The Rule: It’s important to let your wine “breathe” in the bottle before drinking it.
It is true that oxygen often helps a newly opened bottle open up and show its best and most delicious self. However, when you open a bottle only the very top of the wine is exposed to air, so you would have to let that bottle “breathe” for a very long time in order for that slight oxygen exposure to make any real difference in wine quality.
If you think your wine needs to open up a bit, you have a couple of options:
- If you plan to finish the wine within the evening, you could decant the entire bottle, which would provide that flush of oxygen to open up the wine as well as look pretty cool for your guests. Decanting is useful for exposing your wine to oxygen as well as keeping excessive sediment in the bottle (which is often seen in unfiltered wines or wines with significant age).
- If you’re just enjoying a couple of glasses after a long day and think the wine is a little tight or harsh, swirling the poured glass of wine a few times will open up the wine much more effectively than letting the bottle stand for an hour without its cork. Half the fun of drinking wine is seeing how it can evolve over time. Enjoy how the flavors and aromas change and develop between the first and last glasses of the bottle.
The Verdict: Break it!
