| A RAINBOW OF WINE |
Rosé Pink wines have been well known for a long time, but they have become mainstream only in the last couple of decades. Rosé wines come in all shades, from a barely noticeable flush of colour through to deeper pinks. The colour comes from skin contact with red grapes during winemaking, the longer the contact, the more colour. Skin contact could be anywhere from just a few minutes to a few days. Expect your pink wines to have some typically red grape aromas and flavours like berries or floral notes, very light tannins and varying levels of sweetness depending on what the winemaker has chosen.
CHÂTEAU BARBEBELLE CÔTEAUX D’AIX-EN-PROVENCE ROSÉ FLEURI France $22.99 150519 This Provence rosé is pale pink, crisp and refreshing with a light body and notes of tart strawberry, white pepper, orange zest and dried flowers.
Ruby Anthocyanins are the blue, red or purple pigments found in grapes, and they contribute to wine colour. Many red wines show bright, vibrant ruby tones. Ruby wines range from the paler ruby hues from a thinner-skinned variety like Pinot Noir to the deeper ruby tone from the small, thicker-skinned berries of Cabernet Sauvignon. A ruby colour typically indicates a relatively young wine because the ruby morphs into more garnet tones when a wine is aged in the bottle. Ruby-coloured wines often show bright red and black fruit notes depending on the variety and may also show oak notes if they’ve been aged in wood.
MUD HOUSE PINOT NOIR New Zealand $28.99 311340 This pale ruby- coloured wine has a medium body and bright cherry, raspberry, clove and violet notes with a hint of vanillin oak.
Purple Purple is not a common colour for wine, but we do see it in a number of well-known varietals that contain more bluish pigments than ruby-coloured wines. Gamay (the grape of Beaujolais) is often a lighter purple in colour, whereas Shiraz and Malbec often show these bluish-purple notes in a deep, bright tone when young. These are stain-worthy wines to definitely avoid spilling onto your white carpet. Like with ruby wines, the purple colours will fade with age and garnet colours will take over. Young purple wines are often full of vibrant dark fruits and floral violet notes.
CATENA HIGH MOUNTAIN VINES MALBEC Argentina $26.99 478727 A deep purple colour, this full-bodied wine has intense flavours of black cherry, black plum, blueberry, oak spice and pastry crust.
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