Does breathing really help?

I'm a big proponent of letting wines breathe to let them integrate and to help tame the tannins. Heck, many of my notes declare this as a "true fact". Well, it has been a slow day around the gloomy Midwest and I was wondering if this is indeed true or are there other factors at work? Is it possible that the palate acclimate to the imbalance/harshness and it only seems smoother and better integrated? Hmmm.
Bored Bill

Bill, I make a habit (as many do, I'm sure) of having a taste of a wine right when the bottle is opened and then comparing that taste with the taste at a later time, say dinner two hours later. I am almost always reassured that breathing has a strong value.
Even during a meal, I notice how the last sip has finally reached the point when the wine's best is showing and I wish I'd have let it breath more. A second bottle of the same wine opened at this point will not reward me with the taste experience of that last sip of the first bottle - so I no longer have the second unless it is opened at the same time as the first.
Somehow, I don't really want to know the mechanics of this other than knowing that an older wine can quickly breath too much and a younger wine sometime can't breath enough, if you know what I mean. It is a question evolution that most can agree on, I feel.
However, I'll be interested in reading other replies to your post.

Bored Bill,
Go out and buy 2 btls of some inexpensive Spanish or Italian red. Open one 2-4 hrs ahead and dump into a decanter. Then, later, open the other btl and pour a glass of each. Taste them side-beside (blind of course, get someone to help you here).
If you see the dramatic differences you expect...the exercise is complete. If you do NOT observe the dramatic effects you expect, then repeat w/ another wine.
It's just that simple. Why rely on what all these wine geeks "know" as fact? Prove it for yourself. And then report back to us here to add to our knowledge.
Tom

I'm a big proponent of letting wines breathe to let them integrate and to help tame the tannins. Heck, many of my notes declare this as a "true fact". Well, it has been a slow day around the gloomy Midwest and I was wondering if this is indeed true or are there other factors at work? Is it possible that the palate acclimate to the imbalance/harshness and it only seems smoother and better integrated? Hmmm.
Bored Bill

BB,
I have often noticed the most dramatic changes upon airing in older wines. In particular, a '61 Lynch-Bages opened up in '01 tasted thin and anemic when first opened. 15 minutes after decanting, the wine was rich, full-bodied and perfumed. I find it hard to believe that it was all due to tricks played on me by my mind.

Mark Lipton

You must really be bored. Yup, what everybody says. Sure. Makes a difference.
On wine I know needs some air time, I use the slow oxygenization method. Pop the cork, pour out an ounce or two to lower the level below shoulder, and let stand - often for hours, sometimes 24. Of course, I smell and taste the pour-off immediately, and if it is (as Francois would say) "charming" at that point, back goes the cork. If not, I leave it sit. If it isn't where I think it should be a couple of hours before serving time, then perhaps it's decanter time. It DOES make a difference - sometimes HUGE....

Why rely on what all these wine geeks "know" as fact?.
Tom

Tom,
Don't you think it's more fun this way? I'm always reaching out to people..it's my nature.
NSBB

We decant all but the lightest reds. If they are young it is glug, glug method unless it is Dolcetto or something of that ilk. In the later case and with older reds we decant carefully. Using a decanter funnel is useful in all cases except with very fine grained tannin.

BB,
I have often noticed the most dramatic changes upon airing in older wines. In particular, a '61 Lynch-Bages opened up in '01 tasted thin and anemic when first opened. 15 minutes after decanting, the wine was rich, full-bodied and perfumed. I find it hard to believe that it was all due to tricks played on me by my mind.
Mark Lipton

Mark,
I'm disappointed in this response. I was looking forward to an Organic Chemistry thingie that I can't understand.
My mind always plays tricks on me...anything to keep a simple person amused.
WE do need to get together soon. Maybe when winter subsides I can try to assemble a quorum. Stay tuned.
'Winger

I'm disappointed in this response. I was looking forward to an Organic Chemistry thingie that I can't understand.

Well see, ambient oxygen bonds electrophilically to the tertiary hydroxy group on the leucopelargonodin molecule, causing it to cleave the benzoic acid ring. This creates a flavylium ion, which in time reacts with glucose to create malvidin di-glucoside. You then drink the wine, it tastes good and you have some more.

For the record I made all of that up, but it does sound pretty cool.

I'm always reaching out to people...

Yes, but you are picking their pocket.

My experience with Ontario reds, especially young hybrid reds that have seen oak, is that breathing (or aeration as I tend to call it) has a very definite effect. When a wine is young and oaked, it may be quite disjointed when opened. I find that given anywhere from a few hours to a day in the open bottle effects a very noticeable integration of the major components. Personally, I am in favour of letting such wines breathe a bit.

Mark,
I'm disappointed in this response. I was looking forward to an Organic Chemistry thingie that I can't understand.
My mind always plays tricks on me...anything to keep a simple person amused.
WE do need to get together soon. Maybe when winter subsides I can try to assemble a quorum. Stay tuned.
'Winger

Yup, since both of us are giving Toledo a pass it'll have to be a later event. Keep me in mind, Bill. Oh, BTW, the whole breathing thing is likely a result of the oxidation of sulfides and mercaptans developed during the reductive phase of bottle aging. Feel better now?

Mark ChemWonk Lipton

You've gotten some interesting answers, but here's a personal point of view.

I like drinking a couple of glasses of wine over two or even three hours and following how the wine develops. If it isn't pleasant after that time -- and not spoiled for one reason or another -- I put the half bottle open in the fridge and try again the next day.

Usually the second day it's good -- or really bad -- from the get go, but sometimes a quarter gets another 24 hours just to be sure.

Wines change over time, that's for sure. But they are rarely boring.

Bored Bill,
Go out and buy 2 btls of some inexpensive Spanish or Italian red. Open one 2-4 hrs ahead and dump into a decanter. Then, later, open the other btl and pour a glass of each. Taste them side-beside (blind of course, get someone to help you here).
If you see the dramatic differences you expect...the exercise is complete. If you do NOT observe the dramatic effects you expect, then repeat w/ another wine.
It's just that simple. Why rely on what all these wine geeks "know" as fact? Prove it for yourself. And then report back to us here to add to our knowledge.
Tom

Tom, as I know you know, a data point of one is not proof. Nor are the experiences of various people who have responded. If Bill needs proof, he needs to search out controlled experiments where a significant number of blinded people are given wines both fresh and breathed. Perception alone normally suffices for answers of daily living, however, so he should probably just do what you said.

Perception is widely variable. My father teaches piano in his retirement. He recently acquired a new student who has been taking lessons for many years from other teachers. The woman practices scales and is just as happy running seven (ending on te) as she is eight notes (ending on do). She can't tell the difference, which flabbergasted my father, and taught him something new about perception, even at 87 years of age.