Breathe Fuller Flavors into Your Wine
Deciding on the best way to let your wine breathe can be a difficult one.I am ready to start enjoying my glass of wine right away when I open a bottle. I generally don’t have much patience for allowing it to breathe. Why do we let wine 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 the time, about an hour, then use a 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.Surface area is key to the amount of oxygen that can reach the wine; the more area, the sooner you can enjoy it.
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.An aerator achieves the same end result as a decanter but in a fraction of the time. 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 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. Just hold the aerator over your glass and pour your wine. A drip free stand elminates the need to clean up wine spots.
The second option, which is more user friendly especially for multi-tasking person, is the Wine Finer aerator . This simple tool allows you to enjoy your wine in an instant, by mixing oxygen as it pours. You are left with a perfectly aerated glass of wine. All you do is open your bottle of wine, place the Wine Finer in the bottle and pour. After using the Wine Finer, just re-cork it with the top of the device. Your next glass of aerated wine will be waiting for you.
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.
