Sippers is pleased to answer your questions about wine and winemaking
QUESTION: I love your red wines, but what is with the colour in the bottles?
ANSWER: Ever gone blueberry picking or eaten beets? Your fingers and sometimes your teeth end up looking stained with some sort of colour. You’ve just discovered something that most of us take for granted. Dark fruits tend to carry colour pigments on their skins and, when squished, this colour readily transfers to a surface on contact.
There are various methods of extracting colour from red grapes in order to add richness and tannins to the wines. The polyphenols (red wine pigments) present in our red wine kits are a result of some of these methods, such as enzyme extraction or cold skin soak. In addition, the concentrates used in our kits, by virtue of being concentrated grape juice, are very deep in natural grape skin pigment. When some of the rich red wines are stored cold, the temperature tends to alter the stability of the natural colour/pigment and drops out. Therefore, if you see stains in the bottle or a wine glass, you know that we have used the most natural extraction methods and it has nothing to do with artificial colourings. If you are ever in doubt, check the ingredient listing on the side of the wine kit box.
Super rich red wines from the liquor store can also stain a wine glass when left in contact with it for a while. When you see that, don’t view it as something odd or as something to be concerned about. It is as natural as the deep rich colour of your red wine…
