Breathing a wine, or exposing it to air, is also commonly called aeration. Allowing a wine to breathe helps the tannins which are found in many varieties to breakdown and become less noticeable when the wine is consumed.
The fact of the matter is some wines are nearly undrinkable unless they're aerated properly. These include vintage ports, which have a very high concentration of tannins. If you drink a vintage port directly from the bottle, then the taste will be very astringent. Your lips will pucker and you'll probably make a very funny face. The only way to really bring out the delicate flavors of the wine is to pour it into a decanter and allow it to sit for the appropriate amount of time, so it is exposed to the air.
The majority of tannic, red wines also benefit from breathing. Again, this has to do with the level of tannin in the wine. Tannin is an organic compound that is found in the grape skins and seeds. Some grape varieties are more tannic than others. This is particularly true of red grapes. As such, the majority of red French and Italian wines are considered to be tannic.
When these wines are first produced the amounts of tannin in them is very high. For this reason, quality red wines that are less than a few years old must be aerated properly in order to drastically improve their taste and aroma. As the wines age, however, these tannins begin to slowly breakdown. As such, older red wines may or may not be aerated. In any case, you don't want to expose them to the air for as long as you would younger wines.
But the basic reasoning behind allowing any wine to breathe is the same. You want the air to aid in the breakdown of these tannic compounds that can easily overpower the flavor of the wine itself. Therefore, any wine that contains these compounds in any high levels can benefit from aeration.
Inexpensive wines, however, don't usually benefit from breathing. The problem with these wines is they simply don't contain many tannins to begin with. Therefore, exposing them to air really does nothing to help either the taste or the aroma. There really isn't anything you can do for these wines to improve taste.
To conclude, aeration helps some wines, while it will not help others. This is dependent on the levels of organic tannin found within the wine. Knowing which wines are high and low in tannin can help you make a better decision on whether or not aeration is necessary.
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