Julie Harrison - 50 Shades of Red and White

They say that first impressions count and the first impression you get from a wine is its colour.  Colour can tell you a lot about wine the most obvious being whether it is red, white or rose!  Colour differences within these categories can also give you a few clues as to what the wine is about.  

The colour in red wine comes from the interaction of pigments (anthocyanins), found in the grape skin with other compounds such as tannins.  With a couple of exceptions the pulp of the grape does not contribute to wine colour.  Different grape varieties have different concentrations of these pigments and tannins; for example  Pinot Noir has less of these compounds than Cabernet Sauvignon and is  usually a lighter coloured wine.

How much time the juice from red grapes spends in contact with the skin has a major influence on the final colour of the wine.  If the juice is taken off the skins immediately – as happens with Pinot Noir being used in Methode Traditionelle/Champagne  production, you effectively get a “white” wine.   With Rose the skin is left in contact with the juice for just the right amount of time to get the “pinkness” the winemaker is after.  

Red wines are fermented with the skins and this is when most of the colour is extracted.  Various wine making techniques are used to enhance the colour of the wine and things like the pH of the fermenting juice also influence wine colour.

As aging occurs changes occur in regard to the chemistry of the wine pigments.  This is rather complex chemistry stuff  but generally speaking  a young red wine often starts off with a purple tinge to it which, as it ages  changes to garnet red and then to more of a brick red.  This is due to changes in the chemistry of the anthocyanins/tannins and other phenolics.

White wines are really not white at all.   They can range from a very clear with green hints to straw colour to deep yellow.  This is influenced by things such as variety, area the fruit is from, ripeness at harvesting, age and oak treatment.  Looking at age for example, Riesling starts off life a pale straw colour but as ages it will become increasingly golden. Its flavour changes completely too but that is another subject.  In regard to oak treatment and other winemaking techniques an unoaked chardonnay may be pale straw in colour and quite light bodied compared to a Chardonnay that has gone through fermentation in the barrel and malolactic fermentation (to be explained at a later date!!).  In this case the colour of the wine is telling you something about the body of the wine, the mouth feel.  The unoaked Chardonnay will be fresh and light in body whereas the barrel fermented wine will be full bodied and feel richer in the mouth.  In regard to red wine, a deep red is likely to indicate a robust, rich wine whereas a wine that is light red in colour is probably light bodied and easier to drink.

It’s fun to compare.  Next time you are out for dinner try a glass of a lighter coloured red like a Pinot Noir and then try a Shiraz/Syrah and see what you think.