Grape juice bucket- question

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baron4406

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I've been wondering, red wine gets its color from the grape skins. So you get a red wine juice bucket from your LHBS and , naturally, you make an acceptable red wine from it. So how does this grape juice you get in these buckets get its color? I make a ton of wine from these buckets and I've wondered this. I assume they press the grapes to make the juice like you do with white grapes, so how do they get the color?
 
A quick internet search and a little snooping around will help you find articles that state anything from "a proprietary process is used" to "steam is used to extract tannins and color from the skins after the juice is pressed and added back to the pressed juice". I'd call who you order them from and see if they can find out.
 
Maceration......red/blue/black grapes through maceration turns the juice dark.


Which is one of the interesting things I recently learned about Rosè and it's color: macerating with the skins for much shorter time.
Btw to Baron4406, I'm reading my initial reply and hope you did not think I was being condescending. I didn't realize the extent of what you asked and honestly thought it was a trick question. So I apologize if it came off that way.
 
It does not take much for a wine to take on color from it's skins, but yes, getting that deep red color, body, and good tannic structure takes a lengthy maceration.

My local sell a lot of grapes that they crush on site. Their processor crushed them into a hopper, then almost immediately pressed them. The result was a light red juice.
 

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