COLOUR - AGED
As wines age their colouring agents in the wine will start to dissipate. Not only will the colour change it will also loose its lustre and brightness. Don’t be put off by this though – the colouring agents may disappear but mature wines will have just as much, if not more, flavour than it would have had when young.
NOTE: Particularly old red wines or Ports will have a high amount of tannins and/or colouring agents (anthocyanins) which have effectively separated from the wines. This results in the tannins forming a solid deposit at the bottom of the bottle. You need to be careful when serving an old wine as you don't want this deposit to end up in your glass! Though this is only a problem in wines over 20 years of age.
Red wines will start to go brick-red to tawny brown with age. White wines will go deep gold to light brown with age.
