The Secrets of Wine

Speaker: Wines with light bright colors are usually young. Wines that have deeper colors blending themselves towards say amber or gold are wines usually of age. Now we are going to compare the wines using a different technique. We have already looked at the colors against the white background, now we are going to assess the color from looking down into the wine. This gives us a better opportunity to determine the intensity of the color. Intensity is important because it tells us something about the quality. So while the color can tell us about the age of the wine, the intensity can tell us about the quality. Now remember quality is different. A $6 bottle of wine should have a different intensity than a $20 bottle of wine. So when you are judging wine make sure you are judging against this priced wine not against your favorite wine or more expensive wine.

We are going to begin by looking down through, I am looking at the colors and we are looking for a solid color that starts in the core of the wine and works its way out to the edge. Right along the glass it's always going to be clear. Just inside that is where we are going to find these first signs of aging, where the wine will start to change colors. Another way of being able to do this is to tilt the wine away from you again over a white surface in a brightened room and look down through the wine. Looking at the Pinot Grigio we can see that it's very light colored. But what we want to do is look at the color from the center of the glass to the edge. If the color stays solid from the center to the edge it's usually a sign of quality. This color is what we would call strong.

Sauvignon Blanc is lemon colored and quite deep in terms of color from center to edge. The Chardonnay is the deepest color of the three closest to gold. The color of a wine can also change and particularly with Chardonnay if it's aged in oak. It can give it a little deeper hue. Again we see that the quality is quite good with the color being strong from the center to the edge of the glass.


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