Wine is a living being. Just like the rest of nature, it evolves over time and is vitally dependent on oxygen to live—the cork is essentially its windpipe. In aging a wine, this process happens slowly, usually over many years. However, what if we want to drink a young wine or don’t want to wait until the recommended 2025 to crack open a bottle of the good stuff from 2007? The answer is aereating.
Simply put, aereating your wine is maximizing its exposure to the surrounding air. Let it mix and mingle a little to achieve maximum palate pleasure. In fact, I am going to go out on a limb and say you should always be aereating any wine, but especially, especially, young wines. Seem unnecessary? Even a pain? Well, let me show you how it’s easy as 1-2-3 and why your tastebuds will be thanking you.
Stretch Those Legs: Aereating a wine is akin to stretching when you wake up in the morning. Wines are similar to us humans. They have been asleep, albeit in a bottle, and need a little time to wake up, get “dressed”, and express themselves.
Sonic Youth: Young wines are characteristically nervous, a little wild, slightly unyieldy, tight, even in your face when recently opened. Aereating quickly tames them and gently coaxes out their aromas and flavors so you enjoy them to the fullest.
Tchau tannic bombs: nothing like that acidy, sandpaper mouthfeel, right? NOT. In addition to coaxing out flavor, aereating also is key in mellowing big tannins and helping them meld together with the acidity. When first opened, the acidity, tannins, and fruit may be all over the place and not tasting like a single flavor chord. Especially with fuller reds with serious tannic charge, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, and Tannat, I would say 20-30 minutes is minimal. However, with a little planning (or patience) after 1-2 hours, you really start seeing the wine open. The general rule of thumb is the bigger the red, the longer the aereating time.
Pull the Cork: sorry to inform you, but this is a wine myth. How is the wine going to manage to open through that tiny hole? It’s like trying to do lamaze breathing through a snorkel! At the very least, pour the wine into a glass, give it a couple swirls, and let it sit in a cool place until drinking time. For a fun experiment, have a sip every five minutes to experience its evolution from tight-as-a-fist to a blossoming flower.
A glass is just fine; a decanter is better: What can I say? Decanters rule. Here the wine can really stretch its legs as the exposed surface area is much larger. A decanter doesn’t need to be a huge investment at first, there are lots of glass decanters (although crystal is nice…). The purpose though is really about functionality and ultimately, maximizing flavor pleasure from your drink. If you don’t have a decanter, get creative, even a glass pitcher will do in a pinch.
Toys for wine geeks: If you want to a go step farther, my favorite toy is a wine aereator. It’s a pretty simple stainless steel funnel that sits in the neck of the decanter. As you pour the wine, it sprays the liquid in a dozen directions against the decanter glass aereating it. The results? The wine opens much, much faster. In 30 minutes, that bad ass Cab will be totally mellowed out and ready for your mouth.
