How does red wine get its colour?
Next time you’re eating a red grape try squeezing the grape and take a look at the juice, you’ll see the juice is actually quite clear, like the juice from white wine grapes.
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So how does red wine get its colour?
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Red wine gets its colour from the contact the grape juice has with the red skin of the grape during the winemaking. So the more contact the juice has with the skin the deeper the colour of the wine.
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A good example of a wine that doesn’t have a large amount of juice contact with the red skin is Rose, which you’ll notice is a lot lighter in colour than your typical bottle of red.
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Another example that might surprise you is the use of the red grapes Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier that are generally blended with Chardonnay to make the famous straw coloured Champagnes from France!
Why do we see roses planted in vineyards?
When you visit some of the more established vineyards around you will often see roses planted at the end of the vine rows.
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Like me you probably thought they were there to make the vineyard look beautiful. However in the past the roses were actually used as an early warning device.
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Mildew and fungus attack the roses first therefore the viticulturalist could respond before the vines were severely affected.
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Today modern technology has obviously made this practice less popular however personally, I love visiting a cellar door that has roses around the place looks gorgeous but also it retains a piece of the past.
