10/11/2006 Red Wine Color & Age

Welcome to Vine to Wine, this is your host Linda Moran. Today we are going to address the changing colors of a red wine as it ages. You know, as I have gotten older my hair has changed color. Then something happened, and as they say, only my hairdresser knows. This change in color happens as a wine ages as well and it is just as natural a process in a wine as it is with us. Today we are going to talk about red wine specifically. In its youth a red wine will have a beautiful almost blue purple color. As it matures, the wine will evolve into a bright garnet color and then the garnet will begin to fade into a more brick red and eventually begin to look brown or rusty. You will notice this most just around the very edge of the wine poured in your glass. That outer rim of the wine is a sort of halo that lets you know how quickly the wine is evolving or aging. Just like humans and our graying hairs some of us gray prematurely while others keep their rich color for many years. A wines evolution of color may not directly relate to its age. A wine that is aging quickly may actually loose it bright garnet or ruby glow and begin to take on a bricking shade before another wine from the same vintage. Unfortunately, there is no way to cover up the changes in the evolution of a wines color so what you see is always what you get. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.