What is the difference between red wine and white wine?
Most people prefer to call red wine red wine, but in fact, red wine is a generic term for wine and does not necessarily refer specifically to red wine.
Wine can be classified by color as red or white. But do you know why red wine is red and white wine is white? What is the difference between them?
The color of wine comes mainly from the skins of wine grapes. Depending on the color, wine grapes can also be divided into red and white, which can make the difference in the corresponding color of the wine.
Like lemons and other fruits, white wines contain a large amount of the light flavonoids found in grapes, which include a variety of different chemicals that can be yellow, beige or white in color. White wine derives its color from these substances, so it usually appears pale green, yellow, straw and light gray.
Red grape varieties usually contain more anthocyanins, which are more red or purple. For red wines, successful winemaking must effectively extract the pigments from the skins of the fruit.
Obviously, the difference between red and white wines is not only in color, but also in the respective winemaking processes. Because some white wines undergo a short maceration process during the winemaking process, some white wines contain small amounts of tannins, which give the wine (aftertaste) a certain bitterness and astringency.
The tannins in red wines come mainly from the grapes used to make the wine. Compared to white grape varieties, red grapes contain not only anthocyanins, but also more tannins. The tannins are also extracted and dissolved in the must during the skin maceration process, which gives the red wine its distinctive tannin texture.
Due to the different composition of red and white wines, they have different aging potential. Generally speaking, the polyphenols in red wines, such as tannins and anthocyanins, have strong antioxidant properties, which means that the grapes can grow slowly without fear of over-oxidation. Therefore, on balance, red wines are more durable than white wines.
