The color of wine is one of the most easily recognizable characteristics of wines. Color is also an element in wine tasting since heavy wines generally have a deeper color. The accessory traditionally used to judge the wine color was the tastevin, a shallow cup allowing one to see the color of the liquid in the dim light of a cellar. The color is an element in the classification of wines.
The color of the wine mainly depends on the color of the drupe of the grape variety. Since pigments are localized in the center of the grape drupe, not in the juice, the color of the wine depends on the method of vinification and the time the must is in contact with those skins, a process called maceration. The Teinturier grape is an exception in that it also has a pigmented pulp. The blending of two or more varieties of grapes can explain the color of certain wines, like the addition of Rubired to intensify redness.
Red drupe grapes can produce white wine if they are quickly pressed and the juice not allowed to be in contact with the skins. The color is mainly due to plant pigments, notably phenolic compounds (anthocyanidins, tannins, etc.). The color depends on the presence of acids in the wine. It is altered with wine aging by reactions between different active molecules present in the wine, these reactions generally giving rise to a browning of the wine, leading from red to a more tawny color. The use of a wooden barrel (generally oak barrels) in aging also affects the color of the wine.
The color of a wine can be partly due to co-pigmentation of anthocyanidins with other non-pigmented flavonoids or natural phenols (cofactors or "copigments"). [1]
Rosé wine is commonly made by the practice of short maceration (exposing wine to red grape skins for only a short period of time in order to give it a lighter feel closer to that of white wine) or by blending a white wine with a red wine.
The presence of a complex mixture of anthocyanins and procyanidins can increase the stability of color in wine. [2]
As it ages, the wine undergoes chemical autoxidation reactions involving acetaldehyde of its pigments molecules. The newly formed molecules are more stable to the effect of pH or sulfite bleaching. [3] The new compounds include pyranoanthocyanins like vitisins (A and B), pinotins and portosins and other polymeric derived pigments. [4] [5] [6] [7]
Malvidin glucoside-ethyl-catechin is a flavanol-anthocyanin adduct. [8] Flavanol-anthocyanin adducts are formed during wine ageing through reactions between anthocyanins and tannins present in grape, with yeast metabolites such as acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde-induced reactions yield ethyl-linked species such as malvidin glucoside-ethyl-catechin. [9] [10] This compound has a better color stability at pH 5.5 than malvidin-3O-glucoside. When the pH was increased from 2.2 to 5.5, the solution of the pigment became progressively more violet (λmax = 560 nm at pH 5.5), whereas similar solutions of the anthocyanin were almost colorless at pH 4.0. [11]
The exposure of wine to oxygen in limited quantities can be beneficial to the wine. It affects color. [12]
Castavinols are another class of colorless molecules derived from colored anthocyanin pigments.
In model solutions, colorless compounds, such as catechin, can give rise to new types of pigments. The first step is the formation of colorless dimeric compounds consisting of two flavanol units linked by carboxy-methine bridge. This is followed by the formation of xanthylium salt yellowish pigments and their ethylesters, resulting from the dehydration of the colorless dimers, followed by an oxidation process. The loss of a water molecule takes place between two A ring hydroxyl groups of the colorless dimers. [13]
The main colors of wine are:
Other:
The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) provides methods to assess the color of a wine using a spectrophotometer and the calculation of indices in the Lab color space. [14]
Flavan-3-ols are a subgroup of flavonoids. They are derivatives of flavans that possess a 2-phenyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-chromen-3-ol skeleton. Flavan-3-ols are structurally diverse and include a range of compounds, such as catechin, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin, epigallocatechin gallate, proanthocyanidins, theaflavins, thearubigins. They play a part in plant defense and are present in the majority of plants.
Vitis vinifera, the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. As of 2012, there were between 5,000 and 10,000 varieties of Vitis vinifera grapes though only a few are of commercial significance for wine and table grape production.
Delphinidin is an anthocyanidin, a primary plant pigment, and also an antioxidant. Delphinidin gives blue hues to flowers in the genera Viola and Delphinium. It also gives the blue-red color of the grape variety Cabernet Sauvignon, and can be found in cranberries and Concord grapes as well as pomegranates, and bilberries.
Proanthocyanidins are a class of polyphenols found in many plants, such as cranberry, blueberry, and grape seeds. Chemically, they are oligomeric flavonoids. Many are oligomers of catechin and epicatechin and their gallic acid esters. More complex polyphenols, having the same polymeric building block, form the group of condensed tannins.
Malvidin is an O-methylated anthocyanidin, the 3',5'-methoxy derivative of delphinidin. As a primary plant pigment, its glycosides are highly abundant in nature.
Anthocyanins, also called anthocyans, are water-soluble vacuolar pigments that, depending on their pH, may appear red, purple, blue, or black. In 1835, the German pharmacist Ludwig Clamor Marquart named a chemical compound that gives flowers a blue color, Anthokyan, in his treatise "Die Farben der Blüthen". Food plants rich in anthocyanins include the blueberry, raspberry, black rice, and black soybean, among many others that are red, blue, purple, or black. Some of the colors of autumn leaves are derived from anthocyanins.
Phenolic compounds—natural phenol and polyphenols—occur naturally in wine. These include a large group of several hundred chemical compounds that affect the taste, color and mouthfeel of wine. These compounds include phenolic acids, stilbenoids, flavonols, dihydroflavonols, anthocyanins, flavanol monomers (catechins) and flavanol polymers (proanthocyanidins). This large group of natural phenols can be broadly separated into two categories, flavonoids and non-flavonoids. Flavonoids include the anthocyanins and tannins which contribute to the color and mouthfeel of the wine. The non-flavonoids include the stilbenoids such as resveratrol and phenolic acids such as benzoic, caffeic and cinnamic acids.
Petunidin (Pt), like Europinidin and Malvidin, is derived from Delphinidin and is an O-methylated anthocyanidin of the 3-hydroxy type. It is a natural organic compound, a dark-red or purple water-soluble pigment found in many red berries including chokeberries, Saskatoon berries or different species of grape, and also part of the pigments responsible for the petal colors in many flowers. This pigment gives the Indigo Rose tomatoes the majority of their deep purple color when the fruits are exposed to sunlight. The name of the molecule itself is derived from the word Petunia.
Caftaric acid is a non-flavonoid phenolic compound.
Oenin is an anthocyanin. It is the 3-glucoside of malvidin. It is one of the red pigments found in the skin of purple grapes and in wine.
The pyranoanthocyanins are a type of pyranoflavonoids. They are chemical compounds formed in red wines by yeast during fermentation processes or during controlled oxygenation processes during the aging of wine. The different classes of pyranoanthocyanins are carboxypyranoanthocyanins, methylpyranoanthocyanins, pyranoanthocyanin-flavanols, pyranoanthocyanin-phenols, portisins, oxovitisins and pyranoanthocyanin dimers; their general structure includes an additional ring that may have different substituents linked directly at C-10.
Copigmentation is a phenomenon where pigmentation due to anthocyanidins is reinforced by the presence of other colorless flavonoids known as cofactors or “copigments”. This occurs by the formation of a non-covalently-linked complex.
Vitisin A is a natural phenol found in red wines. It is a pyranoanthocyanin.
Vitisin B is a natural phenol found in red wines. It is a pyranoanthocyanin.
Malvidin glucoside-ethyl-catechin is a flavanol-anthocyanin adduct. Flavanol-anthocyanin adducts are formed during wine ageing through reactions between anthocyanins and tannins present in grape, with yeast metabolites such as acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde-induced reactions yield ethyl-linked species such as malvidin glucoside-ethyl-catechin.
Flavanol-anthocyanin adducts are formed during wine ageing through reactions between anthocyanins and tannins present in grape, with yeast metabolites such as acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde-induced reactions yield ethyl-linked species such as malvidin glucoside-ethyl-catechin.
Oxovitisins are a type of pyranoanthocyanin with a pyranone (2-pyrone) component found in aged Port wines. They do not contain an oxonium ion component, as anthocyanins do. Therefore, they do not have an absorption maximum at 520 nm. Oxovitisins are stable yellowish pigments with similar unique spectral features, displaying only a pronounced broad band around 370 nm in the UV−vis spectrum.
Malvidin-3-O-(6-p-coumaroyl)glucoside is a p-coumaroylated anthocyanin found in grape and wine. There are two forms with the cis and trans isomers of p-coumaric acid. It is a cation.
Anthocyanin 5-O-glucosyltransferase is an enzyme that forms anthocyanin 3,5-O-diglucoside from anthocyanin 3-O-glucoside.
Compound NJ2 is a xanthylium yellowish pigment found in wine.
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