Читать книгу Wine Faults and Flaws - Keith Grainger - Страница 58

Red wines can vary in colour from purple through ruby to mahogany. Purple is indicative of a young red wine, some being so intensely coloured that they appear almost to be blue‐purple. As the wine begins to age, the purple tones lighten to ruby, with further ageing to a warm brick red colour, and with full maturity possibly to garnet or even tawny. We may consider the colour of red wine on a scale that runs from purple, through ruby and garnet, to tawny. Red wines that have undergone lengthy barrel ageing, in which controlled oxygenation has been taking place, change colour and also lighten in intensity faster than those bottled early and aged in bottle. A good illustration of this is the contrast between a Vintage Port (not Late‐Bottled Vintage – LBV) of about 12 years old, following two years or so in vat, aged in bottle for 10 years and a 10‐Year‐Old Tawny Port, which has been matured in pipe (cask) and bottled when ready for drinking. This contrast is illustrated in Figure 2.4.

Figure 2.4 Vintage Port and Tawny Port.

A brown wine is tired, oxidised, and probably undrinkable. Red and white wines that are heavily oxidised are pretty much indistinguishable in colour.