Do you feel you need your pinot noir experience to be just perfect?
Who wouldn’t?
With smooth textures, attractive colours, and accentuating flavors, pinot noir is a wine every person would like to relish in the best possible manner.
While aerating a red wine is one of the best-known techniques to improve the characters of wine within minutes, doing it right is crucial.
Keeping that in mind, we bring this helpful blog post to you. In this blog post, we will tell you all you need to know about Pinot Noirs, their aeration, how long you should aerate it, and how best you can enjoy it.
Read on and have fun!
Let’s Rewind
Before we jump to the breathing part, here are a few things all you curious wine lovers would love to know about your favorite Pinot Noir.
If we rewind to the history of Pinot Noir, we come across pretty interesting facts. Did you know your favorite wine has been a favorite of people that existed in the first century?
Well as unclear Pinot Noir’s origins are, in De Re Rustica, Columella describes a grape variety similar to Pinot Noir in Burgundy during the 1st Century!
Talking about Burgundy, Pinot Noir’s name is derived from French words for Pine and Black. This is because the grapes that make these wines are typically grown in the Burgundy region of France, which makes France the home for the wine collection.
So next time you’re wondering how such a beautiful wine got introduced in your life, thank the French!
Another interesting fact about Pinot Noirs is that it is one of the more difficult wines to cultivate and transform.
The tightly packed clusters of grapes make it susceptible to rotting and other viticultural hazards.
Why Pinot Noir is Different From Other Red Wines
Loved for its red fruit, flowers, and spicy aroma, pinot noir is one of the most popular red wines. In fact, it is also the world’s most popular light-bodied red wine.
But what’s important for us to discuss in this section of the blog post is why are we talking here, particularly about Pinot Noir.
What makes this particular wine so interesting and why it can’t be aerated like other red wines?
Pinot Noirs are red wines that come from the Pinot noir grape family and are characteristically dry in nature. Their tannins concentration is in the range of medium-high, and the acidity level is high.
This is where this wine becomes tricky when it comes to letting it breathe or aerating it.
Owing to its tannin concentration and dry properties, it becomes important to aerate these wines to smoothen their textures and soften the tannic effect.
Due to the Pinot Noir’s high acidity level, you can’t let it breathe for too long, as it will quickly turn acidic and soon your favorite wine will taste like vinegar.
This delicate composition of Pinot Noir makes it one of the most confusing wines for wine lovers.
Questions regarding their aeration time and technique arises quite often.
If that’s a question that has been bothering you too, jump on to the next section of the blog!
How Long Should Pinot Noir Breathe?
Now that we have established the fact that Pinot Noir has delicate composition and needs to be treated differently than the rest of the red wines let’s move on to how exactly do we aerate Pinot Noir.
Although the tannic concentration is generally medium to high in Pinot Noir, the basic breathing time ranges from 20 to 30 minutes.
That is the kind of exposure that can be termed as ideal for your favorite fruity reds.
This half an hour can change your ordinary tasting Pinot Noir to a drink that can match with a much more pricey counterpart.
The taste, flavor, texture, and even aromas would expand, and you will be able to experience a completely improved wine.
However, any more exposure to air than those 25-30 minutes, especially for old aged wines will only act towards the dissipation of the enhanced aromas and dissolution of the enhanced tastes.
The wine will not only start losing its enhanced properties, but also its basic flavors and aromas.
It will, in fact, slowly start to taste like vinegar.
Because forget not, Pinot Noir is also characteristically known to be dry and acidic.
One basic principle to remember is the age factor.
Just like any other wine, the more the age of your Pinot Noir, the less the breathing time it requires. A really old Pinot Noir with an age of over 8-10 years will hardly need any breathing.
Swirling in a wine glass will be all it needs!
Popular Pinot Noirs
When talking about the best Pinot Noirs, every single person from a fan to a wine expert will point to the land that is sacred to these grapes, France! It is only fair some of the best Pinot Noirs originate from there.
If you’re looking for some of the best ones, here are three wines you just can not miss out on:
- 2012 Albert Bichot Cote de Nuits Villages Burgundy
- 2016 Jean-Claude Boisset Bourgogne Pinot Noir Les Ursulines Burgundy
- 2015 Joseph Drouhin Côte de Beaune Rouge Burgundy
Now that you have all the information about your favorite wine, all your questions answered and even the best picks with you, this blog has covered it all! All you have to do is go ahead and enjoy your wine, only, this time you will also appreciate it.
Do you have any garnishing or other sorts of ideas to compliment Pinot Noir? If yes, do share with us and other readers in the comments section!