Beyond the Wine Color— Hue, Saturation and Brightness
May 23rd, 2010Any color can be described by making use of three attributes, hue, saturation and brightness. These attributes also have a say on wine characteristics.
Hue
This is the red, yellow, green and blue (or intermediate between adjacent pairs of these) tints that comprise our wine color. Black, white and neutral grey have no hue. In a ‘blind’ tasting — or one held under red lights— only a small percentage (20-30 per cent) of tasters can tell the difference between red and white wine; this is simply a lack of training. So, when we can see wine in good light, we should pay particular attention to the various aspects of sight since they are not only part of the aesthetic enjoyment of wine, but a valuable guide to its quality. Colometric measurements at the Australian Wine Research Institute, with both local and French wines, support the proposal that young red wines of superior quality can be determined by color measurement alone. The color levels of the wines measured varied from 6-25 per cent.
Saturation
Vividness of hue, depth of color. Scarlet is a saturated color, pink is a desaturated color. Remember when we were adding more food coloring to the glass of water — we were saturating the hue. In red wines this saturation comes from optimally ripe fruit — unripe fruit will lack saturation of color. Saturation is the degree of strength or intensity of color in a wine. Red wines, for example, can vary from a light rose to a deep purple, depending on style the term ‘red’ being almost as loose as ‘white’. Density of color can be related to ‘body’ in a wine, full bodied being thicker, darker than ‘light bodied’ wines. White wines that do not show saturation of color from four to five years of age will, more likely, give off offensive odors during the olfactory appraisal.
Brightness or Luminosity
Of color’s three attributes, brightness is the most difficult to define. Technically, brightness applies to an object that emits or reflects light. Brightness is an important part of clarity (see below), yet as an aspect of sight, especially in wine, it goes further. Relevant terms are brilliant, sparkling (non bubbly), as distinct from cloudy, dull, opaque. One might think of it as the difference between glass (clear) and diamonds (sparkling). All good wines — even an aged red — should be bright. Brightness is a visual sign of healthiness in wine a dull or flat appearance suggests decrepitude or high pH.
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