The Wine Bottle

Deciding on the best way to let your wine breathe can be a difficult one.  When I open a bottle of wine, I am ready to relax with my glass of wine. I generally don’t have much patience for allowing it to breathe.Why does wine need to breathe?  By letting your wine breathe or aerate it allows for the full flavors to emerge and make the wine more palatable. While there are many wines that do not need to go through this process, it is good to know the little details that can make a big difference. Here are a few tips to help you enjoy your wine to its fullest potential.

The reason why wines needs to breathe, or age, is because of tannins. Tannins can transfer into wine during the fermentation process from seeds and skins of grapes. Fuller flavors will begin to surface when the tannins, which acts like a natural presevative, begin to break down. White wines and some red wines have low levels of these and therefore do not need aging, or periods of breathing, before drinking. Generally all red wines can benefit from aeration, but those that are lighter and fruitier generally don’t require much aeration.

The term breathing refers to the mixing of oxygen with wine allowing the breakdown of tannins. You can bring out fuller flavors of wine by using a decanter to allow the wine to mix with oxygen on a larger scale.

If you choose to allow your wine to breathe, you still have one more decision to make. Do you use a decanter or an aerator? If you have at least an hour to let your wine breathe, then go ahead and use your decanter. This is plenty of time for your wine to mix with oxygen and for its full flavors to emerge.Pour your bottle of wine, or the portion you want to drink, into the decanter and let it remain there.  The more surface area if the wine that is exposed to air,  the sooner you will be able to enjoy.

If you just opened a bottle of wine five minutes before guests arrived, or you are only wanting to drink a single glass, decantors may not be the best way to aerate your wine.Aerators achieve the same results as a decanter, but much more quickly as you don’t have to sit and wait for the wine to breathe. There are two types, one that you hold over your glass as you pour or ones that you place directly into the bottle and acts as a wine pourer.

The Vinturi red wine aerator allows you to speed up the breathing process by mixing the perfect amount of air for the perfect amount of time to bring out the color, aroma, and flavor of your wines. All you do is pour your glass of wine through the aerator. Wine stains on your counter top will not occur with the Vinturi. They come with a drip free stand that eliminates the need to clean up drops of wine.

The second option, which is more user friendly especially for multi-tasking person, is the Wine Finer aerator . This easy to use aerator allows you to pour your perfectly aerated glass of wine and enjoy in an instant. Just insert the Wine Finer in the bottle and pour the wine into a glass, the wine is aerated by the Wine Finer as it is being poured into the glass. When finished simply place the top back on the Wine Finer as you would a stopper and let sit until you are ready for your next glass.

So before you decide whether to get yourself a decanter or an aerator, consider your time constraints. Make sure you have the time to wait for the decanter or be safe and allow your wine to breath immediately with Vinturi or Wine Finer.

Tags: aerators, breath wines, decantors, red wines, tannins, Vinturi, wine accesories, Wine Finer, wines