Time to Breathe

While at a recent tasting of cabernet sauvignons, an interesting situation developed.  When conducting my wine tastings I always open the wines as we taste them.  Just as you would if you ordered these wines at a restaurant for dinner.  What happened in this case, we were left with a bottle of wine that when first opened was almost undrinkable.  About an hour later, this wine had become one of the evenings favorites.  So why do some wines go through such a dramatic change when left to "breathe."  In this article we will discuss what happens to a wine as it is left to breathe and open up as the wine becomes introduced to oxygen.  We will taste the bottles in 15 minute increments for 2 hours and record our tasting notes.  The wines will be brought from cellar temperature of 50 F and allowed to slowly come to room temperature during the tasting.  During this process we will discussing the 5 S's of tasting, common faults in wine that can be picked up during this process and the physiology of the taste itself.

By Tom Cook