Wine Color - A Thing Of Beauty

Wine color is a beautiful thing to look at. And, it can tell a lot of stories.

So now you have the bottle open and the wine is in your glass. Ready to taste? I bet you are. But not just quite yet.

Drinking the wine is of course the ultimate goal and pleasure but to fully appreciate it, you need to see and smell it as well. I’ll talk about the wine’s appearance here and the aromas on another page. The best way to note the color is to hold the glass against a white background and tilt it away from you. White wines will be anywhere from a light straw green color to amber/yellow. Red wines will be amber/red all the way to deep purple. Maybe that’s how the 1970’s rock band got its name.

Anyway, a clue to the wine’s age is in its color. Older white wines will get darker. Older red wines will lighten up. Very old reds will not be red at all but more like a brownish caramel color. Ironically, very old whites and very old reds will be similar in color!

Younger wines will also tend to have a higher clarity. Older wines will be more dense.

Wine color can also be a tip-off to the varietal. Very light chardonnays and sauvignon blancs will have the above mentioned straw green color to a very light gold. Heavier and oakier chardonnays will be dark golden in appearance.

Among the reds, lighter ones like beaujolais and some pinot noirs will be more reddish with higher clarity. At the other end of the spectrum (pun intended), some cabernets and syrahs will be a dark violet color with no clarity. Remember this for the next blind tasting.

Also, look for the thickness of the wine. The technical term is viscosity. Swirl and note how drops of wine called legs will run down the side of the glass. Long legs are good for both fashion models and for determining the alcohol content. The longer and thicker the legs, the more alcohol or sugar in the wine.

Conversely, if they quickly run down the side, there is less alcohol and the wine will be lighter. Another tip for blind tasting.

So seeing is believing.

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