Red Wines – What are They? How are They Made?

We can all clearly see that red wine is well… Red – but why so? It’s coloring is derived from an extensive variety of grapes that range from reddish to deep purple, and even vivid blues. These grape varietals give way to wines that are classified with descriptive colorings like garnet, dark red, almost black, ruby red, light red, opaque purple, maroon, deep violet, and the list continues. It’s the skins of these grapes that are the key factor behind this scope of wine colors. The skins come into contact with the grape’s juice throughout the fermentation process, this allows the dispersion of both tannins and color. The particular red color of any given wine depends upon the type of grape used and the time length that the pigmentation in the skin is in contact with juice. There’s about 50 main varieties of red wine that are commonly presented in the wine market today.

Styles of Red Wine

As with every wine, the winemaker in question has the “say’ in the wine style that he produces. In saying that, red wines are usually categorized by their “body-type”. For instance, one could say that a particular type of wine is “light-bodied”, and this refers to how it feels in the mouth and its tannin structure. Light-bodied wines have less tannins and less of a presence for the taste buds. Such wines tend to be in less demand as accompaniments for flavorsome foods. One example of a red wine with a light body is one produced from the Gamay grape, such as Beaujolais Nouveau, a young-farmed French wine. Medium bodied red wines feature more tannins that the mentioned Beaujolais Nouveau, but doesn’t have anywhere close to the “pucker” power presented by an Italian Super Tuscan or a potent California Cabernet Sauvignon. Usual example of medium red wine include: Shiraz, Merlot and Chianti.

Red wines with full-bodies boast the greatest tannin levels (and greatest alcohol levels too). Tannin is also an antioxidant that brings about some of the red wine benefits for health. Fine examples of red full-bodies wines are California Key Cabs, Italian Super Tuscans and French Bordeaux. Generally speaking, lighter-bodied wines have a tendency to feel similar to water within the mouth. In full contrast, a full-bodied wine feels much heavier, more alike milk, and this results mainly from the greater tannin (and alcohol!) content.

Key Varities of Red Wines

The key varieties of red wines that you are most likely to come across are: Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petite Sirah, Shiraz, Syrah, Malbec, Sangiovese, and Grenache.

Oftentimes, you’ll hear red wine being referred to by their regional names. For instance, a “Bordeaux” is wine variety from France which is made mainly from three varities of grapes: Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. If you go for Italian wine you will frequently see Chianti, which is made with Sangiovese grapes, or see Barbaresco and Piedmont’s Barolo wines (both sourced from the Nebbiolo grape). Malbec is the Argentinian red wine super star and is gaining traction as a worldwide super star also.