Acknowledgments

Preface

What colors are all about

A bit of history

How do we perceive colors?

1. FROM GRAPE TO WINE: A RICH COLOR PALETTE

White, black, red... really?

Grapes have color in their skin

A wide variety of polyphenols, colored and uncolored

Flavonoids: a wide palette of colors

Do tannins contribute to color?

From grape variety to wine

2. WINE IN ALL ITS SPLENDOR

How to observe the color of a wine?

The taster’s choice of words

The objectivity of the color chart

How to measure color quantitatively in oenology

Brightness or brilliance

Limpidity or turbidity

Fluidity or viscosity

Wine tears: a matter of surface tension

Effervescence and its secrets

3. THE COLOR OF WHITE WINES

The complex origins of yellow

Sweet white wines: a special place

Color evolution with age

Vin jaune, a world exclusive from Jura

“Blanc de noirs” and “blanc de blancs”

4. THE COLOR OF RED WINES

Anthocyanins and tannins: the source of red wine color

Maceration process and concomitant color evolution in red wines

Color evolution during wine maturation and aging

Decoding of color nuances

Quantitative characterization of the color of red wines

5. THE COLOR OF ROSÉ WINES

A true wine with a specific winemaking process

The origin of different shades of color

Characterizing the color of rosé wines

6. WINES WHOSE COLOR IS ORANGE, MAHOGANY, BROWN, BLACK... AND EVEN BLUE!

Orange wines: the return to favor of very old wines

The varied colors of natural sweet wines

Maderization and the effect of aging

The so-called blue wines

7. THE ASTONISHING NATURAL FLUORESCENCE OF WINES

The turquoise fluorescence of white wines

Is fluorescence causing the green glints of white wines?

What about rosé and red wines?

Characterization of fluorescence for oenology

8. COLORS AND THE PERCEPTION OF THE AROMA AND TASTE OF WINE

The hierarchy of the senses: supremacy of vision

The brain tastes first with the eyes

Convincing experiment

Blind tasting

A complex network of influences

9. WHY COLOR BOTTLES?

The “taste of light”

For protection... and seduction

How to color a glass?

Colorless glass for wines with short aging potential... but not only

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index