Teinturier grape

Teinturier grapes are grapes whose flesh and juice are red in colour due to anthocyanin pigments accumulating within the pulp of the grape berry itself.[1] In non-teinturier red grapes, anthocyanin pigments are confined to the outer skin tissue only, and the squeezed grape juice of most dark-skinned grape varieties is clear. The red color of red wine normally comes from anthocyanins extracted from the macerated (crushed) skins, over a period of days during the fermentation process. The name teinturier comes from French, meaning "dyer".[2]

A demonstration of the difference between a red fleshed teinturier grape (Agria shown on the left) and a red wine grape variety (Grenache on the right) with its skin removed to show that both flesh and juice are naturally white. The vast majority of red wine grapes, like the Grenache, express white juice, with the red color of red wines coming from the grape's skin as part of the winemaking process.

Wines

Teinturier varieties, while containing a lot of color, usually make special wines, perhaps due to a higher level of tannins, compounds structurally related to the anthocyanins. Many winemakers blend small volumes of teinturier juices into their wines, to boost the colour, without dramatically impacting the taste. In addition, with the rise of regular forest fires and the resulting smoke taint risk in winemaking, tenteurier grapes are useful in making red wines even when the juice is pressed immediately without the skins. So a wine made in the rosé style from tenteurier grapes will be red rather than rosé and smoke-free (because smoke taint is present in the skins, not the pulp), no matter how smoky the area is.

Examples

Grapes of the teinturier variety Kolor

References

Jancis Robinson, ed. (2006). "Teinturier". Oxford Companion to Wine (Third ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 688–689. ISBN 0-19-860990-6.
Jancis Robinson, ed. (2006). "Teinturier". Oxford Companion to Wine (Third ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 688–689. ISBN 0-19-860990-6.

2. Modern Grapes for the Pacific Northwest, by Kenton Erwin

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[1] Jancis Robinson, ed. (2006). "Teinturier". Oxford Companion to Wine (Third ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 688–689. ISBN 0-19-860990-6.

[2] Jancis Robinson, ed. (2006). "Teinturier". Oxford Companion to Wine (Third ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 688–689. ISBN 0-19-860990-6.