Wine Color Venn Diagram

by: Bottle Boss, Dec 30, 2022

I explain at least twice a day to someone exactly what orange wine is. It always comes down to grape color and maceration. To simplify things, I like to say is "It's basically the polar opposite of rosé," since the grapes are white and there is maceration. In this explanatory diagram, anything two arrows apart is an opposite, showing how white is also the opposite of red. Rosé and White Wine, being the outliers in the chart, could theoretically be recategorized as "unmacerated wines" but we already have the term "direct press."

But who needs all these words and terms? In eight words, this chart sums it up:


There are a few flaws to the diagram, the main one being that lots of famous red wines have unmacerated white in them to give them lift. I also feared the exclusion of "blush" wine, the subcategory of rosé made from direct-press whites tinted with macerated reds--but if anybody is still worrying about blush wine inclusivity, let me simply say Sutter Home has taken plenty of shit already, its feelings are pretty hard to hurt. It will be fine.