When we’re tasting wine we often want to jump straight to the actual taste. I know when I’m hankering for a glass, I don’t think too much about my other senses. I’ll give the wine a good sniff, but the colour isn’t something I always pay attention to. However, the colour of a wine can actually tell you a lot about it. So what does wine colour tell you, and why is it important?
Have you ever noticed that there is a big difference from a wine like a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc? You can actually tell a lot about a wine by its colour or what it is formally known as – its appearance. This comes from the clarity, intensity of the colour which indicates a wine’s body and style, and the colour itself which can indicate flavours and age. These clues will help you pick up some of the characteristics of the wine and can help your gauge how the wine will taste, its character, age, and even sometimes its origin! We might leave that last one to the masters, but let’s dive into what wine colour says about a glass of wine.
Where does wine colour come from?
Wine colour doesn’t come from the grape juice, it comes from skin contact. Both black and white grapes have the same coloured flesh, which means you can technically make white wine from a black grape (as they do with some Sparkling Wine).
For red wine, the grape skins and stems are added to the wine for fermentation. The colour comes from this as the skins stain the juice. In white wines, the skins are separated prior to fermentation, and so they don’t get colour from the skin. For Rosé, normally the wine has a couple of hours maximum with skin contact.
The intensity of this colour also helps to suggest the body of the wine. Wines that are paler in colour are usually light-bodied, and wines with a deep colour tend to be full-bodied. In red wines, this often comes from the tannins which are found in the grape skins and stems. These add to the perception of the body in wine, and so grapes with thin skins will produce fewer tannins in wine than a thick-skinned grape. This intensity can also come from oak – the more time on oak, and the freshness of the oak used will help to develop more intensity of colour. A great example of this is an oaked Chardonnay with its rich and golden colour.
Red Wines
When it comes to red wines, there are many different hues the wine could be, and very different intensities. These colours will tell you a few things. Firstly, an older wine will tend to lose its colour. As oxygen combines with the red pigments in the wine, it will also turn from more purple-red when young, to more orange and then brown. So whether a wine is purple or brown can tell you a lot about how old it is.
Acidity also impacts colour. Wines with higher acidity tend to be brighter red, whilst those that are less acidic are more purple. Bigger, fuller and riper reds also tend to have a deeper colour than lighter cool climate style.
Although there are plenty of different classifications for colour, these four tend to be the most used:
- Purple: These wines tend to be younger, juicy and intensely fruity. These wines tend to have little to no ageing and are light to medium-bodied. You can find the purple hue on the rim of the wine.
- Examples: Gamay, young Malbec, Pinotage, Valpolicella
- Ruby: These wines are usually under four years old with red and black fruit flavours. This is the most common colour you will find, and these wines tend to be light to full-bodied.
- Examples: Grenache, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Tempranillo
- Garnet: These wines tend to have been aged in oak, and have savoury and spicy notes. They are medium to full-bodied. The wine will have a slight orange hue to it, making it look a little brown.
- Examples: Barolo, aged Cab Sav, aged Rioja and Nebbiolo
- Tawny: Tawny wines tend to have been aged for years are often Port wines. These wines have complex flavours and softened body and tannins. The wine will clearly look brown in the glass.
- Examples: Tawny Port
White Wines
White wines are a little harder to read from their appearance alone. But the intensity of colour will tell you about the style and sweetness. In general, a pale yellow/lemon wine is often light-bodied and crisp with high acidity. These wines, particularly with a green tinge, tend to be younger. On the flip side, a golden or amber wine tends to have been aged in oak, or sometimes this is an indicator of age in the bottle. The stronger the colour, the longer in oak or more new oak has been used. These wines are fuller and richer.
There are a few colours to look out for with white wines:
- Lemon-green: These wines are young, floral and herbaceous. They have medium to high acidity
- Examples: Albarino, Trebbiano, Sauvignon Blanc
- Lemon: Wines that don’t have a green tinge are still quite young, but have more zesty citrus flavours usually. They tend to be dry and aromatic with medium to high acidity.
- Examples: Pinot Grigio, Chenin Blanc, some Riesling, young Semillon
- Gold: These wines have been oak-aged and are rich and decadent with medium acidity.
- Examples: Oaked Chardonnay (unoaked Chardonnay will tend to be Lemon which can help you choose a wine to your preference in the bottle store), aged Semillon, Viognier, Sauternes
- Amber: Amber wines have a brown tinge from long periods in oak. These wines are usually fortified and will have added flavours of nut, vanilla, honey or toast and a weighty texture. They also have low acidity.
- Examples: Sherry
Rosé
Rosé also has a spectrum of colours, but it doesn’t always determine how sweet the Rosé will be. It’s easy to think that a bright Pink Rosé will be super sweet, but this isn’t always the case. The colour actually comes from the type of grape used, so it won’t always tell you whether a wine is sweet or not. As a general rule, Provence Rosé tends to be a Salmon colour and is usually dry. Pink Rosé tends to come from Grenache or Zinfandel. As a general rule though, the deeper the colour, the sweeter and jammier the flavours. Paler Rosé tends to be drier.
How to judge the colour of a wine
So how do you look for wine colour? Well, next time you are tasting, follow these easy steps:
- Keep your glass small for the time being. This allows more light through the wine, making it easier to reveal the colour.
- Use a white background. Using a white background and white light if you have it will mean you can actually see the wine colour clearly. You can also use a bit of text on a page to note the intensity of a wine (whether you can see the writing or not)
- Tilt the glass forward against the white background so you can get as much light through as possible. This is another reason to not fill it up to the brim!
- Note the intensity and colour. Both factors will tell you a lot about the wine.
In summary, wine colour tells you a lot about a wine
So next time you are sipping on a glass of wine, take a look at the colour. Look at how intense it is too. This will help you to pick up on some things about the wine you may not have noticed initially! The wine colour can tell you a story about the type of wine, the ageing and the body before you’ve even taken a sip!