You certainly don’t need any help differentiating red and white wine. But have you ever thought about what the difference is? Why the change in colour and taste? Why are there so many different types of wine in the first place? Understandably, it can be super confusing to choose, especially for beginners. Hopefully, this read will make your choice easier next time.
There are numerous ways to classify wines; I will highlight a few. These are colour, carbon dioxide pressure, sugar content, wine body, and drinking time.
First, let’s look at colour.
Wines are either red, white, or pink.
🍷 Red wine is fermented from grapes with skin. Tannins are naturally occurring polyphenols found in fruit skins. All wines have tannins, however, red wines retain them in large concentrations due to maceration. Maceration is the process through which alcohol is used as a solvent to extract colour, tannins, and aroma from the fruit or grape skins after fermentation. The longer the skin is immersed, the darker the colour. The colour is also influenced by varietals (wine made with a particular type of grape). Darker varietals produce darker wines i.e. Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Overall red wines are categorized into the following: Barbera, Merlot, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel.
🥂 White wine is produced when grapes are pressed to remove the skins and seeds before fermentation. Pigment and tannins are not extracted from the skins producing a lighter color. Amongst these are lemon yellow i.e. Pinot Gris, and golden yellow i.e. Chardonnay. It is also worth noting that aging can also affect the color. For instance, a Chardonnay that is not aged will be very light (lemon yellow) however, some that are aged in oak barrels will present a darker golden-yellow color. White wines include the following categories; Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat/Moscato, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Semillon, and Viognier.
💗 Pink wine is a mix between white and red. Fermentation is usually done for a short duration to achieve the pink hue. The longer the soaking of the skin, the deeper the pinkish color.
Second, do you prefer sparkling or still?
🍾 Depending on carbonisation, wines are either still or sparkling. Still wine has a pressure of less than 0.05 MegaPascal at 20°c (MPa). For sparkling wine, pressure is equal to or greater than 0.05 MPa at 20°c.
Third: how sweet do you like it?
During fermentation, sugar is converted into alcohol under yeast. The residual sugar is what remains post-fermentation. Both still wines and sparkling wines can be categorized according to the residual sugar content. 😝 If you’re new to wine and you have a sweet tooth, it’s not a bad idea to start on sweeter wines, and then graduate from those to less sweet, more serious wines.
For still wines;
- Dry: Sugar content less than/equal to 4 grams/liter (g/l)
- Semi-dry: Sugar content between 4-12 g/l
- Semi-sweet: Sugar content between 12-145 g/l
- Sweet: Sugar content of more than 45 g/l of sugar
For sparkling wines;
- Brut nature: Sugar content between 0-3 g/l
- Extra brut: Sugar content between 0-6 g/l
- Brut sparkling: Sugar content between 0-12 g/l
- Extra dry sparkling: Sugar content between 12-17 g/l
- Dry sparkling: Sugar content between 17-32 g/l
- Semi-dry sparkling: Sugar content between 32-50 g/l
- Sweet: Sugar content of more than 50 g/l
Fourth, think about body.
This is simply the heaviness or richness of the wine to the taste. You can get light-bodied, medium-bodied, and full-bodied wines.
Light-bodied wines are often lighter in color and have fewer tannins i.e. Pinot Noir, and Gamay. Medium-bodied wines are often darker than the former and have more texture. For instance; red wines include Merlot, Tempranillo and Sangiovese and white wines include Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Trebbiano.
Furthermore, full-bodied wines have the deepest colour and are packed with tannins. Examples of these are; Red – Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, and Malbec. White- Chardonnay, Viognier and Semillon.
Finally, when will you be drinking these wines?
Wines can be an aperitif; meaning they are served before meals or with appetizers (i.e. sparkling/white wine). They can also be table wine. This means they are served with dinner (mostly dry wine either red or white). Finally, they can also be a dessert wine for after meals. These are most commonly sweet wines. Examples of these include iced wine and fortified wine.
I hope that this read has made it a little bit easier to pick your next bottle when you are shopping with us.
Finally, to quote the wine vintner Alexis Lichine, “when it comes to wine, I tell people to throw away the vintage charts and invest in a corkscrew. The best way to learn about wine is by drinking.” 🍷🥂🤗
Happy experimenting!
