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Color of Wine

color of wine
The color of wine comes from the skin of the grapes. The juice that comes from nearly every variety of grape when pressed is white or clear. This is true of red grapes as well as white wines. The color or pigments of red grapes are found in the skins of the grapes. In order to make a red wine from red grapes, it is necessary to leave the skins in contact with the juice during fermentation. When the skins are placed in the fermenting 'must', the pigments leech out of the skins and color the wine. When red grapes are pressed and the skins are kept out, the color of the wine remains white and is considered a 'blanc de noirs' (a white wine from red grapes).



White wines do not usually have the skins left in the must while fermentation takes place. If the wine is being made from white grapes, there is no benefit to the color and if the wine is being made from red grapes, the skin contact would give an undesirable red color to the wine. Rose or blush wines can be made with 'limited' skin contact (leaving the skins in the fermenting juice for only a short period of time) but this method is unreliable in obtaining consistent tinting from vat to vat.


Rose wines are more often produced by adding a specific amount of red wine to an already finished white wine.