Breathe

Letting a wine breathe simply means allowing the wine to contact oxygen. Thus, as soon as you open a bottle of wine, it begins to breathe. However, decanting a wine or pouring it into a glass exposes the wine to more air and quickens the breathing process.

Letting a wine to breathe helps soften the tannins and acidity and develops the nose. As such, young, harsh reds benefit the most from breathing, as do sharp whites. Delicate whites, light reds, and rose wines, however, gain nothing from aeration because they have minimal tannins and acidity to smooth.

Aerating a wine is a quick-fix to replace the aging process; it can do in minutes what a bottle does over years, although to a slightly lower level of quality. If you taste a wine that is overly potent and probably could have benefited from another few years of aging, pour it into a glass or decanter, let it sit for 20-30 minutes, and try it again.

Remember, however, that too much exposure to oxygen will strip a wine of its flavor and make it dull. This explains why wine does not stay good for long after it is opened and why wine is kept corked until one is ready to drink it.