🍷 Skin contact
The time juice or wine spends together with the grape skins.
Skin contact is the time that grape juice or wine spends together with the skins of the berries. Colour, tannins and aromatic compounds pass from the skins into the liquid. It is the same thing as maceration, but the word "contact" is used more often for white wine.
In red wine contact is a must: without it the wine would not take colour. In white wine it is usually short or skipped altogether to get a light, delicate wine. If white grapes stay on the skins for a long time, from several days to months, the result is "orange" wine: amber in colour, with tannins and an unusual taste.
This has long been done in Georgia, where juice with skins is kept in clay vessels called qvevri, buried in the ground. Today the method has come back in fashion in many countries. Skin contact is part of the wider maceration and an important choice for the winemaker: colour, grip and aroma depend on it.
Links
- Next step
- 🍷 Orange wine, 🍷 Qvevri
- Part of
- 🍷 Maceration
Frequently asked questions
What is skin contact?
The time juice or wine spends with the berry skins, taking colour, tannin and aroma.
How is orange wine made?
White grapes are kept on the skins for a long time, from several days to months.
Where are qvevri traditionally used?
In Georgia: juice ferments with the skins in these buried clay vessels.