This is respected a.f.w. contributor Ian Hoare replying to a post I made yesterday on the news group...........(My comments in "") "Jane MacQuity writing in last weekends Times claimed that almost without exception there is never a need to decant wines or even to let them breath." I disagree profoundly. "She said that the practice of allowing some fine reds to breath before drinking was actually damaging the wines." If you leave them too long, of course. "Quoting Macquity "There is no mysterious alchemy that occurs if you decant a wine. Take my word for it, wine does not freshen, improve it's bouquet, or open up when exposed to air." Not freshen, but it does improve its bouquet AND open up. She's completely up the creek on this one. "Ms MacQuity further stated that the only wines that ever require decanting are crusted ports and old reds that have thrown a sediment." Wrong. Only yesterday, Mikulski, talking of his Meursault-Genevrières 2001 said that it would improve considerably when drinking at less than 5 years' old, if decanted 3-4 hours in advance. I don't know what Ms McQuitty is up to. Perhaps she's been told to throw off the stuffy "Times" image and start being more "modern". In any case, I think - from personal experience that she's wrong all along the line on this one. Final example. Over Xmas (we were in the UK with my brother), my brother brought up 3 bottles of Ch Beaucastel '95. We weren't sure how many we'd drink amongst the 11 of us round the table, so we opened (and decanted) 2 of them about an hour and a half in advance. About half an hour into the meal, it was obvious that we'd need the third, so I opened it and decanted it. Upon drinking it, the wine showed far less expressively at first, and was quite closed in. Lots of enthusiastic glass twirling DID get it to open up, but nevertheless, it was noticeably less expressive than the first two. "What do the knowledgeable AFW contributors think ?" Same as I think of people who say that all guidelines as to what wine to drink with what dish are useless. Rubbish. -- All the Best Ian Hoare Another regular, Mark Lipton, added this......... As others have already said, the notion that breathing and/or decanting is pointless runs contrary to fact. Ms. McQuity must either not have tried many ageworthy wines or have no palate. What I can contribute to this discussion is a little sense of *why* air may improve a wine's bouquet. Most wines are bottled under what we could term "reductive" conditions (reduction here meaning the opposite of oxidation). Part of what happens as that wine ages (but only part) is the gradual and slow oxidation of various components to give rise to what we think of as "bouquet" and "tertiary aromas." A very powerful red wine might remain in a reductive state in perpetuity. So, when you open one of these wines, exposure to atmospheric oxygen induces chemical reactions with the reductive flavors of the wine that produce more bouquet. FWIW, the same thing happens with coffee: the familiar aroma of fresh-brewed coffee is the result of oxygen-induced reactions that liberate odorants. That's why you should start with cold water that is used just before reaching a boil (more dissolved oxygen in the water). Come to think of it, oxidation also accounts for the familiar smells of onion and garlic.......... For more wine anorak stuff than you can hit with a stick, and to see this thread in full (title - Wines, No Need To Breath ?) go to alt.food.wine