Hi Hue,
So color in grapes comes from the skins. Did you ever go to a Halloween party where someone peeled grapes and placed them in a box, forcing un-sususpecting guests to put their hand into a bucket of ‘eyeballs?’ Were you ever the parent who had to peel the grape skins off?
If you were either party, you would have noticed that all the grapes look the same. Just like people, whose blood is all the same color no matter what our skin tone, the juice of all grapes is the same.
The real difference lies in the skin of the grape, which contains compounds called anthocyanins—these are the pigments responsible for the red, purple, and blue hues in wine.
When making red wine, the grape skins stay in contact with the juice during fermentation, a process known as maceration. This is where the color of the wine comes from! Different varieties have different skin thicknesses. Pinot Noir’s skin is notoriously thin, while Syrah’s thick. This combined with the length and temperature of the maceration results in the deepness and intensity of color. So, a Cabernet Sauvignon will have a much darker color compared to a Pinot Noir because Cabernet Sauvignon skins have more anthocyanins and are left in contact with the juice longer during fermentation. The skin also contains tannins, that astringent feeling, like your teeth are wearing sweaters. Macerations have to be carefully managed or the final wine can end up bitter and undesirable but with a beautiful color. Some time winemakers will even put in a small amount of of juice from a thicker skinned grape, just to deepen the color.
For white wine, the juice is immediately pulled off the grape skins so the wines are light in color. That said, orange wines, which are made from white grapes but fermented with the skins, can have a unique amber color, with some tannic grip, similar to red wine, because the skins are involved in the fermentation process.
Other factors, like the location the grapes were grown affects the color. Grapes grown in a windy or cold vineyard may develop thicker skins leading to deeper color and more tannins.
In short, the color in wine comes from the grape skins and the winemaking process, with factors like grape variety, ripeness, and fermentation techniques all influencing the final hue. In blind tasting the wine’s hue is a hint, not the entire answer. But it can give you a lot of information
Cheers,
