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The reason behind opening up a wine bottle anywhere from twenty minutes to two hours before taking your first sip is grounded in simple science. You are maximizing the wine’s exposure to the air in the room, allowing it to “breathe.” As it warms up, its flavors blossom and mellow.

Even if you don’t decant your wine, most wines will noticeably improve if you uncork them twenty minutes before your guests arrive. If the wine is of a recent vintage, it will “open up” far more quickly than an older wine (the one time in life when youth isn’t all that beneficial!), as they’ve already been aged in the barrel, and are ready to be enjoyed. Lighter-bodied wines, such as Pinot Noir, which have lower tannin levels, need little if any time to breathe. But with older wines, which have more than their fair share of tannin, decanting is a necessity.

A decanter can be any glass vessel you wish to use, as long as it has a wide enough opening on the top for the wine to breathe properly. If you don’t own an actual decanter, you can use a glass pitcher, or even a glass flower vase if you can pour safely from it. Or simply pour your wine into glasses you’ve set out on a tray about 20 minutes before you serve it, and let nature take its course. The wine will open wonderfully.

When seasoned wine drinkers open a bottle of wine, they invariably sniff the cork. They’re simply gathering more information about the wine. Has the wine been in contact with the cork? Good. Does the cork have a moldy or vinegary smell? Not good, as this means that the wine has oxidized, and turned sour. Sometimes you’ll find crystals resembling salt adhering to the cork, but this is simply tartaric acid, and is harmless.

If a wine has gone bad, it will have a noticeably sharp and unpleasant odor, like ammonia. In the case of white wines, you will often know if a wine has turned just by a simple glance (an oxidized white wine has turned an unsightly brown color). Before drinking, consider doing as the experts do, and swirl a small amount of wine in your glass and take a small sip before drinking. This releases more of the wine’s fragrances, and also allows you to visually examine the wine. Is it at all cloudy, or discolored? It shouldn’t be, unless you are drinking an unfiltered wine.