Red wine/white wine

[Jackie]

Hello wined too much,

Welcome to the WineBoard! Your questions are not hard. Even I feel confident enough to respond (and I usually leave this to real experts).

Wine is made from grapes with different colored skins. That's the short answer.

Lighter grape varieties with green or yellow skins are used to make white wines, i.e. Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon (Fume) Blanc, Chenin Blanc, etc. In the U.S. wines are commonly named the same as the name of the grape variety they are made from, so we call them "varietal wines". Chardonnay wine, for example, is a white wine made (primarily) from light-skinned Chardonnay grapes. And so on.

Same thing with the darker grapes. Purple or red wines are made from purple or red grapes. The dark grape skins are left on the grapes as they are crushed and processed to make the wine. The most popular red varietal wines (and grapes)are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Shiraz, and Zinfandel to name a few.

Then there are rose or blush wines, which are sort of pinkish in color, i.e. White Zinfandel. This wine is made from red grapes with their skins removed (don't ask me how they do it). Removing the skins makes the wine less tannic and therefore "sweeter". Blush wines are often a favorite of newcomers to wine for that reason. New wine drinkers tend to enjoy sweeter wines like White Zin until they discover other wines....

Red wines are usually best served around 65 degrees (just under room temperature). A cool cellar or a little time in either a fridge or an ice bucket will do it. White wines & rose wines are best served around 55 degrees, so you should plan to refrigerate them for a few hours before drinking.

Ladies' drink??? Well, that's a matter of opinion. I don't think there is a feminine or masculine wine. I've seen plenty of guys drinking white zinfandel (which is actually pink) and enjoying it, albeit experienced wine lovers tend to prefer less sweet wines (unless it is meant for dessert).

I'm sure our wine board members will express their opinions on this question....

BTW, wined too much, we can't tell your gender... Are you wanting to FIND a feminine wine or wanting to AVOID such wines (if there are any). Reveal your aim and we can get a discussion going.

Hope this is useful. Welcome aboard.

Jackie