How to visually analyze your wine

Everything that is enjoyed in life is first analyzed visually, and wine is no different. It's very important to understand the meaning behind how a wine looks, as it tells a story about the juice you are about to drink. This is the first step of tasting wine. Immediately after the wine is poured, you shouldn't swirl, smell, or taste the wine. You should take a look at the visual characteristics. Why, you ask? The visual components of wine can tell you quite a bit about the history and make-up of the wine.

When analyzing the wine, most people use a white background in order to see true coloration and viscosity that is present. I personally use a sheet of paper from my office printer when analyzing wine. This will provide a great representation of color, clarity, and texture that the wine contains.

Why should you care about color?

Color is so very important, and tells us a lot of information about the wine. The juice gets is color primarily from the skin of the grape. If you were to take just the meat of the grape and juice it, it would have no color at all. However, when the grape juice comes into contact with the grape skin, or maceration, the juice slowly begins to change colors. This is true for both red and white wines. Different varietals of grape skins have different characteristics, both flavor and color. This plays a major role in the visual elements of the wine.

Color is also affected by different methods of fermentation and aging. Think of what aging in a French oak barrel does to a Chardonnay versus aging in a stainless steel cask? Depending on how dark or light a wine is could tell you how "oaked" the wine will be.

Visual Considerations of White Wine

The color of your white wine is mainly impacted by two different factors: skin contact and oak. There are many shades of yellow a white wine can have, from almost clear to deep straw or hay color. A white wine that is clearer and without tint typically signifies a lack of contact with the grape skin. It also tells us that the flavor of the wine will be crisp, refreshing, and maybe even tart. Another signal of a lighter colored white wine is that the wine has probably not been aged in oak barrels, and that it is lighter in body and revitalizing in flavor.

So what does a darker colored white wine tell us? It definitely signifies that flavors will be a little more on the bold side, full of rich fruits, creams, and other components. The contact with the grape skin is much longer with darker varietals, therefore introducing more tannin and flavor components of the grape skin into the wine itself. Another cause of darker wines is the oak aging. Wine aged in oak tends to adopt the flavor from the barrel, specifically from the toasting of the barrel before wine is put into it. It will also signal a wine that will typically be full-bodied when considering mouth-feel.

Color can also tell you the age of the wine. If your white wine has a greenish tint to it, it is highly likely that this is a very young wine. Most white wines are meant to be enjoyed at their young age of bright yellow and greenish-tinting, as this is also a sign of acidity and fresh fruit notes. Older white wines tend to be a dull yellow or a brownish tint, showing that the wine has been affected by the elements over the years.

And now the Red Wine

Philosophies are typically similar to your exploration of the whites when looking at red wine. Your lighter colored wines have the tendency to be higher in acidity, bright, and more tart in flavor. This even signifies in some instances the type of fruit that might be considered. Lighter colored red wines tend to show more light strawberry and citrus notes. Lighter and brighter colored wines also typically indicate that the wine will be lighter in body and lower in tannin, as well as less oak influence when aging.

Darker red wines tell us that the wine will have definite oak notes, but more importantly a bolder mouth-feel with multiple sensations: bitter, thicker, and complex. The shade of red or purple may also indicate some of the common notes you might find, including plum, dark cherry, cassis, and earth or leather.

What is the most interesting part of red wine visuals is that the age differentiation is actually opposite of white wine. A deeper and darker red wine, typically one that you cannot fully see through, will be younger in age. The rim, or outter edge of the wine, will be tighter and shades of bright purple and red. An older red wine will become more translucent, shades of brown and orange, and have a more broad colored rim around the edge of the glass. There are typically more color variations throughout the wine with older reds.

Now, let's go to the next step of tasting wine, which is SWIRLING YOUR WINE.