The art of tasting (3)

As mentioned before, taste is a global sensation with several constituents. The visual element is one of these, so, it is normal to start our tasting experience with this.
Every tasting starts by observing the robe, or colour, of the wine.
Thus, a red wine will be …………red, a rosé wine …..rosé and a white wine ……..yellow.
(Yes, milk is white, not wine!).
This may seem very simplistic, but, for example, if we look at a red wine, is it violet-red, purplish-red, garnet-red, orangey-red, brownish-red, blackish-red, brick-red etc….?
If it is simple to determine the colour of the wine in our glass, defining the hue or shade is more difficult. However, naming with precision the hue of the wine is important because it already gives us a lot of information about the wine.

- Information on the grape variety (for red wines only).

All the noble grape varieties used to make quality red wines are black skins with white juice. The colour of the wine therefore, doesn’t come from the juice but from the skins and is transferred during the maceration when the juice is in contact with the skins. As the colouring matter is different from one grape variety to another, we will find different shades and tints.
Wines made from Pinot Noir will be ruby-red, from Gamay more purple-red, Syrah or Shiraz, blackish-red and Sauvignon, brownish-red. Be careful though when interpreting the colour as certain wines can reserve surprises.

 

- Information about the stage of evolvement of the wine.

I prefer to talk about maturity rather than age, as, like people, the idea of age is relative and certain old wines may seem young while some young wines may already be tired.
To resume, a pale golden robe with green tinges or red with a violet fringe makes us think of a young wine with a certain liveliness and freshness while an amber colour or tile-red colour will probably be more supple with wilder aromas.
If the hue is one of the essential constituents of colour, it is not the only one as we must take into consideration the intensity of the colour. Two wines with the same hue can have a different intensity. A red Burgundy, for example, can be light ruby-red or dark ruby-red. Did you know that until the middle of the 19th century, the wines from Pommard were ’primeur’ whose colour was ‘oeil de perdrix’ or partridge-eye (between pink and red) because they only had a short maceration.
Today, consumers prefer more coloured wines obtained by a longer maceration (2 to 3 weeks) giving a more intense extraction. But this intensity also depends on the ripeness of the grape at the time of the harvest, the yield, the age of the vines and the type of soil.
As for the wine taster, his interpretation should stay modest. For him, the stronger the colour of the wine, the more full-bodied and better structured the wine should be.