The colors of wine

All about wine dresses

Whether it's a dish or a drink, what the eyes see matters a lot and it's what triggers the craving.

In this article, we are going to focus on the colors of wine . This will allow you to arrive at the tasting and appreciation of a wine that you have never tasted.

Wine dresses

The Red wine

The color of a red wine can range from raspberry to garnet . You can come across a red wine with a cherry, ruby, purple or violet color. This color can turn towards tile with the age of the wine. To make your choice in good conscience, here is an article to make your choice of red wine .

The White wine

In the category of white wines and wines with a lighter color such as champagne, sparkling wine or semi-sparkling, the color can range from yellow-green to red . A white wine can take on a straw yellow, green gold, pale gold, yellow gold, golden, old gold, light amber or dark amber color.

In the collection of white wines, there are dry white wines and sweet wines which tend to have a more or less pale color. Sweet wines have a color that can range from golden yellow to more amber colors.

It is clear that the white grapes used in the production of wine only give drinks with light colors and the black grapes give red and rosé wines. However, the winemaking process can cause the grapes to lose color and as a result, black grapes can yield white wine. So it's not just the color of the grape that plays on the dress.

White wine is not always dry white wine , it can also be sweet white wine or sweet white wine which are part of sweet wines .

Pink wine

Rosé wine is not obtained by mixing red wine and white wine. Admittedly, there are certain rosé champagnes that are obtained from this process, but these are called blended rosés.

The color of rosé wine is obtained by the same vinification process as that of red wine . However, its color remains lighter because the juice stays in contact with the grape skins for a shorter time. For red wine, the juice is left in contact with the skin of the grapes for 2 to 3 weeks while for rosé wine, this process lasts from 2-3 hours to 24 hours in general.

Rosé wine can have a very light color and a more intense color , even a light red. This nuance can be explained by the winemaking techniques. The rosé wine with a very clear color has surely gone through a direct pressing which consists of pressing the black grapes directly and vinifying the juice like a white wine.

These techniques will bring a freshness and an increasingly aromatic note to the rosé wine in addition to this color which is lighter . Some rosé wines are vinified like red wines, in other words, the maceration is done in vats and this is what makes the color more intense in the rosé.

Festive wines

To learn more about festive wines, especially champagnes , sparkling and sparkling, I invite you to read this article which talks about this subject .

What gives the color of wine

The grape variety, in particular the grape variety, is the main parameter that gives the color of the wine . Pinot Noir or Grenache, for example, are black grapes and their skin brings color to the drink. These red grape varieties generally give red wine but the intensity can still be variable.

Syrah or Cabernet Sauvignon , like those found on the Left Bank, have lighter skins and yield red wines. The climate also interferes with the color of the drink: in general, if the wine is aged in a cool environment, its color will be lighter.
It should be noted all the same that this rule is not absolute because other elements can play with the climate, in particular the orientation in relation to the sun and the altitude. These other parameters can affect the intensity of the color of the wine.

Vinification is also one of the parameters that give color to the wine . A wine that has an intense red color has surely gone through a stronger extraction process.

Certain techniques such as pigeage or pumping over can also bring more color to the wine . Breeding and aging will also play a role so that red wines with a purple color will evolve towards a garnet tone, even tile with age.

If the great wines made with care and with less chemical product go to a darker color over time, this is not the case for industrial wines. Indeed, some chemicals cause pigment loss.

Red grapes for white wine

This statement may seem paradoxical to you, but you can make white wine with red grapes.

To obtain this result, the winegrowers apply themselves to avoid macerating the skins with the juice . This is the technique used to have champagne with red grape varieties such as pinot noir , pinot meunier. Making red wine, on the other hand, is rather impossible.

However, with white grapes, it is possible to have a drink with a more orange color. For this, the winegrowers use prolonged skin maceration, which consists of leaving the must of white grapes during maceration with the skins for a longer period. To have more colorations with white wine, you can try the experiment by letting it age for a few decades. You will not have an intense red color but the yellow-green color can turn orange.

What about yellow wine?

It should be noted that yellow wine is produced exclusively in the Jura . To obtain them, the winegrowers of this region use a more specific breeding technique.

For ageing, these wines take at least 6 years and 3 months and this is what develops its golden color. When you open a bottle of yellow wine , you will also smell an odor reminiscent of walnuts, curry or hazelnuts. This emanation is due to a chemical compound called sotolon and the latter also enhances the taste of the drink.