Teinturier grape

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.

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]

  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.