AERATING & DECANTING
Several years ago, The New Yorker published a cartoon of a bottle of wine that had just been opened by the wine steward at a restaurant and placed on a patron’s table. With his hands and arms signaling caution, he exclaimed, “Stand back! Let it breathe!”
Aerating or “breathing” red wine often softens or mellows it. At the very least, it refreshes it (it’s been clammed up in that bottle for 2-5 years or more, after all). If you aerate your red wine, by all means don't merely have the server leave the opened bottle on butt end.
Leaving a red wine to aerate with the little aperture of the bottle's neck is like refreshing a summerhouse after a long winter by opening just the attic window.
Really get air to it by pouring the red wine into a decanter or around the table into the bowls of the glassware.
Of course, this can be done at home as well as out on the town.
That is one purpose of a wine decanter, simply to aerate the wine. I typically pour the wine right down the middle, holding the bottle completely perpendicular, in order to get as much foamy air into the mass. I may, if the wine is particularly full-bodied or tannic, pour it back into the bottle (a plastic or glass funnel comes in handy here) and then once again back into the decanter.
One morning several years ago, after an Italian-themed dinner party the evening before, I wandered into the kitchen to finish up the stray dishes and discovered a half-full bottle of Paolo Scavino Barolo, a very stout red. But the 10 hours or so that it had been sitting there had softened it up marvelously and really opened up its beautiful perfumes. It was terrific (especially with bacon and eggs!). Now, I open Barolo or Barbaresco a full day ahead of serving either. You’d be surprised how that much breathing time changes the wine for the better.
The other use for a decanter, of course, is to decant or clarify a (typically red) wine of its sediment, the deposit that it throws after a long period of time aging in the cellar. Most of us drink our wines too young to require decanting, but there are the lucky few who lay down red wines to age for many years in order to develop their haunting tertiary aromas and flavors.
(The primary aroma and flavor of a wine come from the grape type(s) used to make it; secondary aromas and flavors from winemaking and any barrel aging at the winery.)
There really is no reason to age any wine unless it will “improve,” a very qualitative term. Some folks enjoy their reds young and strapping; others, graceful and mellow.
In any case, cellaring wines properly is key. For those living in apartments or condos without basements, that can be an issue. In general, try to put wines on the floor of a dark closet, if possible one in the northeast section of your home (the coolest spot).
I tell people that the best way to store wine is the same way to maintain a teenager: in the basement, on its side, in the dark and free of vibration. I eschew wine storage units with refrigeration motors for anything long-term because of that last reason alone.
Finally, a note on the proper temperature at which to serve red wines, something that you may attend to both at home and while dining out.
Red wines don’t like elevated temperature (anything much over 75 F) because (1) their tannins and fruit flavor both flatten out, (2) their (sometimes high, but always quite present) alcohol becomes “hotter,” and (3) their acidity (always precariously low anyway) dies.
The best all-around temperature at which to appreciate most red wines, young or old, is 65 F (or, for certain reds such as Beaujolais, even less). The cooler temperature will perk up the acidity, keep the alcohol from feeling too warm, and keep the astringency of the tannins just right.
If your reds don’t come up from the basement at cellar temperature (often a lot cooler than 65 F), just put a slight chill on it. That’s right; cool it down by putting it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before serving it, or by wrapping a wet cloth or towel around the bottle in a shroud. As the air evaporates, it will cool the wine down just perfectly.
Some restaurants—certainly not all—store red wines at cellar temperature. If your red wine arrives too warm, don’t be shy to request that it be plunged into a mix of ice and water for a couple of minutes in order to bring it down to around 65. Because you’re the one paying for it, you really ought to have it at its best.