Which Wines Need Aerating?

3 of 9 in Series: The Essentials of Serving and Storing Wine

The process of aerating wine — exposing it to air — is called breathing. Sometimes the aroma and flavor of a very young wine improves with aeration. But just pulling the cork out of the bottle and letting the bottle sit there is a truly ineffective way to aerate the wine. The little space at the neck of the bottle is way too small to allow your wine to breathe very much.

How to aerate wine

If you really want to aerate your wine, do one or both of the following:

Pour the wine into a decanter.
Pour the wine into large glasses at least ten minutes before you plan to drink it.

Practically speaking, it doesn’t matter what your decanter looks like or how much it costs. In fact, the very inexpensive, wide-mouthed carafes are fine.

Wines to aerate

Many red wines but only a few white wines — and some dessert wines — can benefit from aeration. You can drink most white wines upon pouring, unless they’re too cold.

The following wines can benefit from aeration:

Young, tannic red wines: Young, tannic red wines — such as Cabernet Sauvignons, Bordeaux, many wines from the northern Rhône Valley, and many Italian wines — actually taste better with aeration because their tannins soften and the wine becomes less harsh. The younger and more tannic the wine is, the longer it needs to breathe. As a general rule, most tannic, young red wines soften up with one hour of aeration.
Older red wines with sediment: Many red wines develop sediment after about eight years of age. You will want to remove the sediment because it can taste a bit bitter. To remove sediment, keep the bottle of wine upright for a day or two before you plan to open it so that the sediment settles at the bottom of the bottle. Then decant the wine carefully by pouring the wine out of the bottle slowly. Stop pouring the wine into the decanter when you reach the sediment, toward the bottom of the bottle.

The older the wine, the more delicate it can be. Don’t give old, fragile-looking wines excessive aeration. The flavors of really old wines will start fading rapidly after 10 or 15 minutes of being exposed to air.
A few white wines: Some very good, dry white wines — such as full-bodied white Burgundies and white Bordeaux wines, as well as the best Alsace whites — also get better with aeration. If you open a young Corton-Charlemagne (a great white Burgundy), and it doesn’t seem to be showing much aroma or flavor, chances are that it needs aeration. Decant it and taste it again in half an hour. In most cases, the wine dramatically improves.
Vintage Ports: One of the most famous fortified wines is Vintage Port (properly called “Porto”). Young Vintage Ports are so brutally tannic that they demand many hours of aeration (eight would not be too many). Even older Ports improve with four hours or more of aeration. Older Vintage Ports require decanting for another reason: They’re chock-full of sediment. Keep Vintage Ports standing for several days before you open them.

There are some exceptions to the “decant your red wines and Ports” rule. The following red wines do not need decanting:

Light- and medium-bodied, less tannic red wines, such as Pinot Noirs, Burgundies, Beaujolais, and Côtes du Rhônes; lighter red Zinfandels; and less imposing Italian reds, such as Dolcettos, Barberas, and lighter Chiantis. These wines don’t have much tannin and, therefore, don’t need much aeration.
Inexpensive (less than $12) red wines. Same reason as the preceding.
Tawny ports — in fact, any other Ports except Vintage Ports. These wines should be free from sediment (which stayed behind in the barrels where the wine aged) and are ready to drink when you pour them.