Date: Fri 14-Feb-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DONNAM

Illustration: C

Location: A10

Quick Words:

Wine-Wisdom-red-white-Small

Full Text:

Wine Wisdom- If Grapes Are Purple, Why Is Wine Red?

By Steve Small

The holidays have faded into a distant memory. My life is returning to at

least a semblance of normalcy. (As anyone with a house, children, and a

business can attest, normal is probably not the correct word!) Now that I have

had time to gather my thoughts, my thinking has turned to colors.

In the real world, red is the color of a stop sign. In the wine world, red

wine is really closer to purple than red. Descriptions of how a wine looks,

smells and tastes can often be painfully detailed. It is quite a mystery to me

how this terminology became so popular.

Color is one of the important factors in evaluating the quality of a wine.

When I tasted the 1993 Columbia Crest Estate Cabernet, it was so concentrated

I noted the color as being almost black. Young wines like Beaujolais Nouveau

are often light purple or red. Older red wines that have aged in cellars

usually start to turn brown around the edges, and are often described as the

color of red brick. In most pictures of wine grapes, the grapes are purple. So

why is it called red wine?

In the real world, white is the color of freshly fallen snow. In the wine

world white wines are really somewhere between yellow and gold. A light

Sauvignon Blanc like Concannon is usually a pale straw color. A barrel-aged

Chardonnay that is more than three years old like Kistler or Talbott can be

gold like the color of honey. Dessert wines that are made from late harvest

grapes will take on an amber color as they age. If you have a bottle of liquid

in your refrigerator that is really and truly white, it is probably milk!

Finally, let's examine a bottle of Beringer White Zinfandel. Is it white wine?

Of course not - it's pink. The Trinchero family of Sutter Home Winery called

their wine white Zinfandel to distinguish it from their red Zinfandel. It

would be presumptuous of me to make suggestions to one of California's most

successful wineries. However, there should be no dispute that pink Zinfandel

would have been a more accurate name.

Obviously, when we discuss red and white wines, everyone knows what we mean.

More importantly, what we call a wine is not nearly as important as what it

tastes like. Now, if I could only figure out why we park in a driveway and

drive on a parkway...

(Steve Small is the proprietor of Steve's Liquor Store, in Ricky's Shopping

Center at 71 South Main Street/Route 25 in Newtown.)