What Wine Color Can Tell You About Your Favorite Wines

If you’re here, you already know that wine comes in different colors like red, white, and rosé. In those categories, there is a vast spectrum of subtle color differences that can tell you a lot about the wine you’re drinking. Here’s a brief rundown of what wine color can tell you about your drink, from how it tastes to its tannin count.

The Many Colors of Wine

Depending on who is counting, there are more than 40 distinct color hues for wine. For example, not all rosé wine is pink when vin gris exists, and certain white wines can turn orange because the grape juice is left with the skin for much longer. Along with the distinct taste that each drink offers, the vibrant rainbow of colors adds to their appeal.

It’s no surprise that people appreciate colors that appeal to the eyes just as much as the taste buds. In marketing, it’s common to use vivid colors, fruits, or rainbows to draw people toward a product. This is even seen in online slot games, where a bright color scheme can generate a lot of interest. This can be seen with the Starburst slot, a popular game that’s all about matching visually striking gems together, including familiar colors like light reds and subtle yellow hues. Just like how an array of colorful crystals or juicy fruits find mass appeal, hunting down and trying each color of wine can be part of the fun for the aficionados out there.

Since we tend to focus on sparkling wines here, white or pink rosé should be the most familiar to our readers. That said, even with sparkling wines, there are subtle color differences and wild cards like the sparkling, deep red wines of Italy.

What Wine Color Indicates

Wine color can indicate a lot about the drink in your hand. If you know your wine, then a glance at its color should give you insight into its body, acidity, tannin levels, and, of course, taste. Much like how sommeliers smell their wine to get the full flavor profile, they also examine its color to set expectations. That’s why Sight is the first of the Five S’s of wine tasting – the others being Swirl, Sniff, Sip, and Savour.

Body & Acidity

Body is perhaps the easiest thing to predict about a wine when you look at its color. Generally, more transparent, paler, less vivid colors will have a lighter body. This is especially true for white wine, which indicates a dry drink. Deep, bold colors indicate a fuller body.

This applies to red wines, too – slight red wines will have a much lighter body than a deep red or tawny drink. However, for red and rosé, you should know that paler colors often mean it’s a more acidic wine.

Taste & Tannin Count

Where taste is concerned, you should expect pale, transparent white wines to have a gentle fruity/floral taste. A light lemon color also indicates the wine is not oak-aged and came from a region with a colder climate. Then, deep gold or amber colors will typically have the same fruity tastes but set against notes of spice or even baked goods.

You can expect the same dynamic with red wines – darker wines will taste more like dried fruit with rich, nutty, earthy notes. For rosé, deeper hues should have a riper, sometimes spicy taste as opposed to the light, summer fruit taste of pale pink wine.

Tannin count plays into taste a lot and, unsurprisingly, it also changes the color of your beverage. With little exception, darker colors have more tannins that create deeper, richer, slightly bitter flavors that balance against a wine’s naturally fruity taste. Red wines have more tannins than any other type, closely followed by skin-macerated whites, often called orange wine.

With these notes, you should be able to predict a lot about a glass of wine before it ever reaches your lips.