Drinking wine can be pure joy, however tasting wine, with focus and intent, can take you on a full-fledged multisensory and intellectual journey. Collecting information through the senses, from the appearance, the aromas on the nose, and the flavors and structure detected on the palate, can help decipher what the wine is and assess the wine quality.

Judging the wine visually is the first step in wine evaluation in any professional tasting. In the Systematic Approach to Tasting Wine (SAT) developed by WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust), one starts the wine assessment by checking the appearance (the color and its intensity) by looking down at the wine in an inclined glass against a white surface.

The color of white wine can be lemon- green, lemon, gold, amber, tawny, or brown. Red wine can be purple, ruby, garnet, or brown, while rosé wine can be pink, salmon, or orange.

The intensity (or amount you are able to ‘see through’ the wine) can be pale, medium or deep.

Examining the wine’s appearance at this stage can give important clues to the identity of the grape variety, the wine’s age (young or old), and sometimes, the winemaking techniques used.

Color in wine comes from a pigment found in the grape skin called “anthocyanin” which is the same compound present in other fruits and flowers with red, blue or purple colors.

During the initial stage of red winemaking, the grapes are crushed, and the juice and skin are left in contact with each other (macerating or soaking). Tannins and color will be naturally and actively extracted from the skin into the fermenting juice. Generally, the more soaking time and rigorous extraction, the deeper the color. It’s important to note that having a short duration of skin contact with the juice will result in rosé wines where only a hint of the color seeps into the juice. The longer the skin macerates in the juice, the darker the shade of pink.

The intensity of color can also be directly related to the thickness of the crushed grape skin along with the management of this extraction (strength, frequency and temperature). Thin skinned varieties like Pinot Noir for example naturally have less color so produce paler colored wines while thick skinned grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon are more densely pigmented and typically produce deeply colored wines.

The grape variety also determines what the color of the young red wine is, typically purple or ruby. Most of the young red wines are ruby in color from varieties such as Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Tempranillo. Famous young purple wines are typically from varieties like Malbec, Syrah, and Zinfandel, to name a few.

As for white wines, most young wines are lemon in color with a few having a green hue to them, typically Albariño and Grüner Veltliner. During the winemaking process of white wines, the skins of the crushed grapes are discarded and only the pressed juice- which is kind of colorless- is fermented into wine. Should the winemaker choose to macerate the skins of the white grapes with the juice for a long time, the extraction of color and tannin will result in a final “orange wine” or “amber wine” as this style is called in Georgia.

Age can also influence the color of the wine where older white wines get deeper in color, turning from lemon or lemon-green to golden then amber then eventually brown for oxidized wines. Red wines “with age under their belt” however start to lose color becoming paler and changing from purple or ruby to garnet and then tawny and brown.

White wine can appear golden in color due to winemaking techniques where oaked white wine will gain a hint of orange due to oxidation. The enhanced color can vary based on the size of the barrel and the duration the wine is stored in it. Micro oxygenation from oak  during maturation may also change the appearance of red wine gradually becoming paler and gaining a hint of brown.

Acidity also plays a key role in the color of wine. Wines with more acidity (lower PH levels) have more intense red color in them whereas wines with less acidity (higher PH levels) have more blue color. And that is due to the pigment anthocyanin’s sensitivity in acidic environments.

While the color of the wine is not an indication of its quality or its flavor, drinkers still use it to form a preconception of the wine before even trying it. This is particularly true for red wines and more so for rosé wines.

Research has shown that there is a “positive association” among drinkers between deeply colored red wines and flavor intensity. Deep red wines are often linked with concentrated fruits and hence a pale red wine is misjudged as a low-quality wine. That misconception paved the way for some winemakers to use the additive “mega purple”- a grape juice concentrate- to “color correct” the wine giving it extra “power” to appear more concentrated and hence more appealing. This additive is typically not used for high quality wines but is often used for mass produced wines when color is drained from the wines particularly in Merlot, Zinfandel or Cabernet Sauvignon wines to name a few.

The shade of the rosé wines also influences consumers where they associate wines with darker pink shades with fruitiness and better quality while lighter shades with freshness. That is why many producers put these wines in clear glass bottles thinking consumers are likely to pick their rosé wines based on the color.

Wine color does not only contribute to wine enjoyment, but it is also utilized among wine enthusiasts and professionals to eliminate or confirm a potential grape variety option to complete the wine tasting puzzle. For example, a pale ruby wine can support the suspicion of a Pinot Noir while a pale garnet color supports Nebbiolo, pending other clues like aromas, tannins, and acidity point in that direction. A deeply colored or golden white wine can point in the direction of oak maturation or aged wine, supported by oak aromas (like vanilla) or tertiary aromas (dried fruits) that might be detected on the nose. These are all pieces of the puzzle collected on that multisensory and intellectual journey when tasting wine.