What Can Color Tell You About the Wine?

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Looking at the color of your wine can reveal more than whether it’s red, white or rosé. Its hue can give you a clue about its flavors, age and what it might taste like.

While you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, you can glean certain information about wine just by looking at its color. A more translucent red might mean a lighter-bodied red wine, for example, while a barrel-aged white wine could look golden. The color can even hint where the wine comes from, what grape variety was used and how the wine was made.

With a whole range of wine colors to explore, let’s take a look at what each shade reveals about the wine.

How Does a Wine Get Its Color?

First, let’s explain how a wine gets its color. People often think that red grapes make red wine and white grapes make white. But white wines can be made from red grapes, too. Champagne, for example, can be made from the red Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes.

The juice and pulp of wine grapes are typically colorless, regardless of the grape’s skin color. To make a red wine, winemakers leave the grapes’ skins to soak in the juice (a process called “maceration”), which transfers color and flavor from the skins to the wine.

The longer the juice stays in contact with the grape skins, the more color and flavor it absorbs.

White wines, on the other hand, usually get their light color because they are made with little or no contact with the skins. Rosé wines get their pink shade from just a few hours to a few days of contact between the juice and the red grape skins.

What Else Can Affect a Wine’s Color?

There are several other factors that can affect a wine’s color besides the amount of time it spends on the skins, including:

1. Grape variety – Different varieties have different skin color and thicknesses, which influences the color of the wine. Thinner skins often lead to a lighter color, while thicker skins generally lead to darker ones. That’s why Pinot Noir, made from thin-skinned grapes, is a lighter red than wine made from thicker-skinned Cabernet Sauvignon.
2. Climate – Grapes cultivated in warmer regions often grow thicker, darker skins to protect themselves from intense sunlight and heat. These robust skins typically lead to wines with richer, deeper colors. By contrast, grapes grown in cooler climates tend to have thinner skins, resulting in wines with a lighter appearance.
3. Winemaking techniques – The methods used during fermentation, as well as the decision to age wine in oak barrels, can also have a noticeable impact on the color of the wine.
4. Age – Over time, wines—whether under cork or still in-barrel—naturally come into contact with small amounts of oxygen. This gradual exposure breaks down their pigments and gently alters their color. White wines may take on a golden hue, while red wines often fade to softer shades such as brick or tawny.

How to Observe the Color of Wine

It can be challenging to discern a wine’s true color in poor lighting conditions. Here’s a helpful tip for seeing a wine’s shade best: Get a sheet of plain white paper and go somewhere with ample natural daylight, and hold the paper behind your glass. Gently tilt the glass so the wine spreads along the inside surface. This allows you to see the wine’s color more accurately and discern its clarity and hue.

Red Wine Colors

The color of red wine offers helpful insight into both its age and character.

Ruby

Easily recognized by its bright magenta hue, ruby-colored wines include Pinot Noir, Tempranillo, GSM blends (Grenache-Syrah-Mourvèdre), Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. These wines are typically known for their lively acidity and softer tannins.

Among these, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot tend to exhibit deeper ruby tones, while Pinot Noir is the lightest in color. Tempranillo and GSM blends generally fall somewhere in the middle.

Garnet

With their rich brick-red tones, garnet wines often offer higher acidity, and have a medium to full body and elevated tannins. This hue varies in intensity—Sangiovese often represents the deeper end of the spectrum, while Nebbiolo wines tend to be lighter and more delicate in appearance.

Purple

Wines such as Syrah, Petite Sirah and Malbec typically exhibit a deep, nearly opaque purple color. This richness is often reflected in their full body, layered flavors and plush, velvety tannins. Tannat is another wine in this category, noted for its inky color and bold tannins.

White Wine Colors

Just like red wines, white wines present a spectrum of colors that offer clues about their style, body and age.

Green-Tinged

The pale shade, often seen in young, vibrant wines, may show a faint green hue around the rim. These wines typically feature bright, fresh flavors with crisp acidity. Sauvignon Blanc and Vinho Verde are two examples.

Straw or Pale Yellow

A common color for many white wines, this shade often signals a refreshing and fruit-forward profile and sometimes come along with a clean, balanced acidity. Wines such as Albariño, Pinot Grigio and unoaked Chardonnay frequently exhibit this hue.

Deep Yellow or Golden

Fuller-bodied or oak-aged white wines often develop a deeper golden tone. This color is typical in wines such as oak-aged Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Viognier. These selections often offer layered flavors of tropical and stone fruits, honey and warm spices, often complemented by a soft, buttery texture.

Amber

Amber is the deepest hue found among white wines and is most often the result of extended aging or specific winemaking practices, such as skin contact. This method is also used in the production of what are commonly referred to as “orange wines,” many of which are, in fact, amber in appearance.

Wines in this category—such as Marsanne, well-aged Chenin Blanc and skin-contact Pinot Gris/Grigio—are typically medium- to full-bodied and layered in character. Their flavor profiles may include ripe orchard fruits, honey, toasted nuts and warm spice.

Rosé Wine Colors

Rosé wines are admired not only for their refreshing taste but also for their range of elegant colors—from the palest blush to a vibrant deep rose. The specific hue of a rosé is primarily determined by how long the grape skins remain in contact with the juice during the winemaking process.

Pale Pink

Often referred to as “blush pink,” “salmon” or “onion skin,” this is the most delicate shade of rosé. Wines in this category tend to be light, dry and crisp, offering flavors of red berries, melon and citrus. Provençal rosés are an excellent example of this style.

Medium Pink

A slightly deeper shade, medium-pink rosés usually result from a longer period of skin contact. Varieties such as Sangiovese and Grenache rosé often, but not always, fall into this group. These wines typically feature juicy red fruit notes with gentle hints of spice, supported by a refreshing acidity and a touch more body.

Dark Pink/Cherry

At the deepest end of the rosé spectrum are wines so richly colored they may be mistaken for light red wines. These rosés often possess more tannin and have a fuller body and a more structured profile, along with bolder red fruit flavors. Varieties such as Syrah and Mourvèdre rosé frequently produce wines of this hue. It’s worth noting that a darker color does not necessarily indicate a sweeter wine.

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