How long to let breath?

Tomorrow evening I am opening some 1989 Léoville-Barton. I intend to decant and I appreciate what breathing can do to a wine. What's a good breathing time? I am probably overly concerned but I don't want the wine to sour in the decanter.

I would serve it immediately after decanting.

I last had this wine 2 years ago and I thought it may have been a little young.

If it were my bottle I'd pour it into a decanter maybe 30 minutes before I was ready to serve. There is no way that a bottle of 89 Barton in decent shape is going to lose anything in that amount of time. If it is tight and needs more air in order to open up then you will have the pleasure of watching it bloom throughout the evening.

I agree with Matt.

If you let it breathe for a half hour and find it isn't open enough, you have to be prepared to set it aside for a half hour or more to allow it to open.

There are people that guzzle wine and don't keep it in the glass long enough for it to develop. They don't deserve to enjoy the wine at its best in any case. (Nor to be served wine of that calibre, IMO). The real wine fanciers won't mind waiting a bit, because that is far better than finding that the wine was opened too long before hand and was probably great about 2 hours before you got to it.....

Jon,

+1 here with Matt. Especially if this is from the same young lot as the one that you brought when you visited here a couple of years ago.

Thanks all. I am going with Matt's suggestion. And yes, Ramon this bottle is from the same lot as the one we had.