Contributor: Tersina Shieh

There is no need to aerate every wine you drink. However, if the wine is "closed" (meaning you cannot smell any aroma), then you should "open up" the wine by putting it in contact with oxygen in the air to help release its flavor. The most direct way to determine whether you need to aerate a wine is to pour it into a glass. If you can smell the aroma, then you don’t need to aerate it.

Some wines have a "closed" period when they are still young. For such wine, you should probably decant it as it will take a larger amount of air to open it up. If you simply uncork the bottle without pouring it out, there won’t be enough contact between the wine and the air due to the small bottle opening. As a result, the wine won’t be able to breathe properly to release its aroma.

For aged wines, letting them breathe can eliminate the odor accumulated inside the bottle over the years. The aromas of aged wines are very delicate and can evaporate easily. Therefore, one should be careful not to overexpose an aged wine to air. Simply removing the cork and letting it sit for 30 to 60 minutes is good enough. However, sometimes we might need to decant an aged wine to filter out the sediments. It should be done by carefully pouring the wine into a decanting vessel through its opening so that the aroma will not evaporate during the process.

Personally, I don’t like to decant wines. If the wine is closed, I would just pour a little bit into the glass, swirl it and consume the wine slowly. Drinking wine this way will help release its different kinds of aroma and allow us to experience how the flavor changes over time like watching a child growing up.

One thing I would like to address is the habit some people have of swirling their wine. The bigger the glass, the more violently they swirl. This is a big mistake as all the delicate aromas will be gone after 30 seconds of vigorous swirling. Smell the wine first and only swirl a little if it is closed. The most delicate aromas can only be detected on the first sniff without swirling. Unfortunately, too many people swirl the wine before even the first sniff. Try it yourself: take two glasses of wine; swirl one vigorously like those "professionals" for five minutes; then compare its aromas with one that has not been swirled.

Deciding when to aerate, decant, or swirl a wine depends on the wine’s characteristics. Just remember to take it easy. Once the delicate aroma evaporates, there is no way to get it back.

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A marketer turned winemaker, Tersina's mission is to promote a stronger wine culture in Hong Kong and China, explaining wine in a no-nonsense way.

This post was created by a Jubee contributor. Views represented are not affiliated with Jubee. Photo by Ivica.