Wine Aeration

Wine aeration is the process of saturating wine with oxygen just before consumption, helping it to “open up”: to develop its aroma, soften its flavour, and reveal the full depth of its bouquet. Contact with air sets off in a young or closed wine the favourable oxidative processes that under ordinary conditions would take place slowly.

Young, rich red wines with a high content of tannins (like Cabernet Sauvignon) especially need aeration: oxygen softens their firmness and astringency, makes the flavour rounder and more harmonious, and lets the wine release its closed-in aromas. The simplest way to aerate is simply to uncork the bottle in advance, though the narrow neck gives little contact with air, so it is more effective to pour the wine into a wide-bottomed decanter or to use a special aerator attachment through which the wine passes in a thin stream, actively enriching itself with oxygen. Gently swirling the glass before tasting is also a form of aeration. But it is important not to overdo aeration: old, fragile wines can quickly “fade” from excessive contact with air and lose their aroma. Aeration is the art of letting a wine breathe exactly as long as it needs.