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Why do you have to let wine breathe?
Most of the aromatic substances in wine are first "broken down" by oxygen from the air. Ultimately, chemical elements react with each other here, and compounds are formed that humans perceive as fragrances. The longer the wine "breathes", i.e. the more air or oxygen it receives, the more intense and complex the aroma becomes and the more it changes over time. This is because many of the aromatic substances are volatile, i.e. they disappear again after a while or form other chemical compounds, which in turn give rise to new fragrances. Thus, a wine can go through different aromatic phases depending on how long it is allowed to "breathe".
The supply of air or oxygen also ensures a fuller and more complex flavour and, in the case of red wines, leads to a softer, rounder texture because the tannins (tannins) chain themselves into longer molecules under the influence of oxygen(polymerisation). This not only gives the wine more expression, but also a more pleasant mouthfeel.
Breathing means living - and wine also comes to life aromatically when it gets air.