Red wine is made from purple-ish blue wine grapes, white wine is made from green-ish-yellow wine grapes and rosé wines are made from pink-ish winegrapes right?!?!

Photo of red, white and rosé wine grapes

Gotcha!

Those of you who have experienced (endured ? wink!) one of my winemaking talks already know the above photo is a joke (humor!), and also know the information I share below – I’m saving some composition time and sharing some excerpts below from a well-written piece from below from Ryan Snyder of Winegeeks.com

White wines are wines that contain little or no red pigmentation. These wines are almost always made from white grapes, but can be made from black grapes as well. Winemake rs can make white wine from black grapes because the juice in most black grapes is actually clear. White wines can be sweet or dry, or somewhere in between. Popular white wines include Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio / Pinot Gris, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc.

Red wines are made from black grapes and have a red or blue tint. Most grapes have colorless juice, so to make red wine the grape skins, which contain nearly all of the grapes’ pigmentation, have to remain intact with the juice during all or part of the fermentation process. Besides the difference in color, the primary difference between red and white wines comes are tannins. They are found in the grape skins, and are transferred into the wine while the skins are in contact with the juice. Found mainly in red wines, they provide a dry, puckery sensation in the mouth and in the back of the throat. They also help preserve wine, allowing most (but not all) red wines to be aged longer than white wines. Popular red wines include Beaujolais, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chianti, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel.

Rosé wines are pink in color, and can be referred to as rosé, pink or blush wines. Rosés are made from black grapes, but don’t fully turn red because the grape skins are removed from the juice mere hours after contact. This brief contact with the grape skins gives the wine a pink color from the slight transference of red pigments from the skins. Rosés can also made by blending together white and red wines. This brief skin contact also ensures that a minimal amount of tannins enters the wine. Many rosés are sweet, with White Merlot and White Zinfandel serving as great examples. However, the best and most traditional European rosés are bone dry.

OK it’s your turn to play a joke on me or comment…

By-the-way here’s a photo showing several examples of a range of colors a rosé wine may exhibit

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