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Illustration: Tom Jellett

The corkscrew

Nellie Ming Lee

 

In "wine speak", the palette consists of just white, red and rosé. Within each of these colours, though, there is a wide spectrum of shades that can tell the drinker a much deeper story about the wine he is drinking. When you examine a glass of wine, it is best to look at it against a white background (a piece of paper helps if the tablecloth isn't white). Examine the colour from the centre of the glass (this is called the core) to the rim (this part, which can vary from a lighter shade of the core colour to pale and watery, can tell you how intense or aged a wine is).

What's also important is the clarity of a wine. Is it clear? This could mean a wine has been filtered before it went into the bottle. Slightly cloudy? Could be a sign of age or that it was produced by a "natural" winemaker, one who prefers not to filter so as to have all the flavour components in the bottle for ageing. Cloudy? This is most likely an old bottle and one would need to decant it before drinking.

For white wines, which aren't really white but myriad shades ranging from straw, yellow and gold to amber, the more intense the colour, the older the wine could be.

a wine that is a pale straw colour, maybe with hints of green, is likely to be a young wine of a recent vintage (within one or two years), and probably a sauvignon blanc or chardonnay that's seen no oak. Generally speaking, these wines will have a watery (clear) rim, which is a sign of youthfulness. If the wine is a slightly more intense straw colour, it could be a riesling, pinot grigio/pinot gris, or a pouilly-fume (a sauvignon blanc that's been partially aged in gently used oak barrels).

a yellow-ish wine is usually a chardonnay that's seen a bit of oak. If there's a hint of green, it shows that it is probably a young wine (one to three years old). A more concentrated shade of yellow would be an indication that the wine has spent more time in oak, probably six months to a year.

could indicate two things. One, that the wine was barrel fermented and aged in oak - think of a rich buttery Californian chardonnay - this would be the usual method a winemaker would use to make this. And two, that it's sweet. Think of a sauternes or an ice wine, where the grapes are harvested quite late, therefore concentrating the juices and intensifying the colour.

is a sign of a very old wine - think of an oloroso sherry, a tokaji (which is sweet) or madeira.

The shades in red wine range from purple, ruby and garnet to brown. A richer shade indicates intensity. A colour that fades towards the rim indicates age, especially if the shade changes; for example, from garnet to brown.

a good indicator of youthfulness, for the age of both the wine and the vines. The more intense the purple, the higher the alcohol content. Look at your next glass of Aussie shiraz - if it's a recent vintage, it is likely to be a deep purple and contain about 14 per cent alcohol.

covers a lot of ground. Pale ruby? Probably a pinot noir, especially if the rim is veering towards a slightly pinkish ruby - this would have seen minimal oak, hence the paleness. Medium ruby? Could be a merlot-based Bordeaux wine, or a sangiovese (think chianti). Deep ruby? Bordeaux or something cabernet sauvignon-based, most likely.

I'd describe this colour as ruby with a dash of chocolate. When I see a wine that is garnet in colour, I usually suspect it is an aged wine, at least five years or more. If you're looking at a glass of rioja, especially if it's an older (a wine that has been aged at least two years in oak and three in the bottle before being released), you should see shades of pale tawny garnet at the rim, with a medium-deep garnet at the core.

is a sign of an aged bottle of red - most likely 10 or more years. In a glass, you may see flecks of brown in the core colour, along with a brownish rim. Or, you could be looking at an old Pedro Ximenez sherry or Muscat dessert wine, which would have been purposely oxidised (exposed to air).

 

 

 

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