Is it really worth swirling wine in a glass?

How many times have we paraded around by vigorously swirling a wine in a beautiful glass tulip? Don’t deny it! I remember a friend during a happy conversation at the bar counter with a lovely girl. To impress her, he ordered an excellent Ripasso. He served it like a true gentleman to the lady and then, caught up in the excitement of showing off his wine expertise, he let out a sudden movement that caused the wine to spin excessively, resulting in a splash that hit the innocent blonde and her pristine white blouse: a textbook example that had the onlookers rolling with laughter and sent the girl into a rage. Alas, my friend lost both the girl and the evening!

But does all this swirling make sense? Yes, it does. The point is to oxygenate a wine. It’s about taking it from a reducing state to an oxidizing state, as they would say in technical terms. In practice, especially with wines of a certain structural thickness, it facilitates the mixing of oxygen with the mass, enhancing the expression of aromas and fragrances.

Normally, however, remember that to taste, you would do the following:
after pouring the wine into the glass, bring it close to your nose without moving it: this way, you can perceive all the most volatile and usually delicate primary or secondary aromas, floral and fruity.
After appreciating its still qualities, you can gently swirl it along the walls. Do it two or three times, then bring it to your nose and you’ll start noticing the less volatile aromas that indeed need a “little help” to emerge from the glass: still the fruit, the spice, the aromatic herb, the toast, the honey, etc.
Then it’s better to stop; otherwise, you’ll make it fade away… as they say in vulgar terms. 

Sparkling and sparkling wines
NEVER!!! It's sometimes amusing to watch someone swirl a glass of Prosecco or Franciacorta, or worse, Champagne. If the CO2 goes away, we're drinking a still wine... what a story!

Young White Wines

Better not to... or only once if you find them a bit closed due to extreme reductive fermentations. Rather, wait a moment while they're still.

Structured and aged White Wines
Use the technique described earlier. Then, only if you cannot do without it, but be aware that with each swirl, you lose value from the wine. 

Young Red Wines
The less you do it, the better it is! You make them lose all their freshness and impoverish their aroma immediately.

Structured and aged Red Wines
You can do as suggested before. But do not overdo it… at a certain point, stop. Excessive oxygenation loses character and quality.

Sweet Wines 
Try if you can… they have such a high glyceric consistency that sometimes you have to be acrobats to manage it!

Final advice!
Rather, I give you a tip to avoid excessive swirling. Hold the foot of the glass with one hand and rest the base of the glass in the palm of the other hand. While keeping it supported, gently rotate it. By abrasive effect, you will pass some warmth to the wine and delicately oxygenate it. Doing this, when you bring the glass to your nose, you will be able to perceive the roundness of the aromatic components better. Ah, better with structured and aged red wines!

Bernardo Pasquali