What white wine tastes most like a red?

[Dervorin]

There’s method in the madness, honest!

Several months ago, my SO and I went to a fabulous magic show called “Show and Tell” where the magicians performed a bunch of very cool tricks and then, in the second half, showed us exactly how they were done. It was mind-boggling, and very clever. One of the tricks I really liked was a “Turn Water into Wine” gag which was done by disguising white wine as water, and then using a bit of food colouring to apparently turn it into red wine. The wine was then offered to an audience member, who confirmed it was wine.

Now the SO was very sceptical about this, and scoffed that anyone would be able to tell the difference between red wine and coloured white wine, and therefore the whole premise of this trick was bunkum. I maintain that the power of suggestion is more compelling than she gives it credit for, and that in a similar situation, she wouldn’t doubt the veracity of the statement that this was red wine. It’s been, as I said, several months since this show, which means that it’s very likely that she’s forgotten all about the incident.

I, however, haven’t.

I want to test this theory, and see if I can convince her that a glass of white wine coloured red is actually red wine. I have no intention of trying to replicate the whole trick; I just want to see if I can pass off white wine as red. This has two advantages - I don’t need to learn how to do the trick, and I’m not forced to use a very pale white to make it look like water.

She knows a lot more about wine than I do, so I turn to my online knowledge bank to help pull off this deception. Does anyone know what type of white wine would be most suitable for this cunning strategy? It would have to be something relatively common, and not ridiculously expensive - I want to try this out, but not if I have to buy a bottle of Chateau la Expensive 1942.

[Athena]

They’re actually not all that different. In John Cleese’s Wine for the Confused, he serves red and white in dark-colored glasses so the drinkers couldn’t see the color, and none of them could guess if it was red or white wine. I think a lot of it has to do with temperature - a white served at the same temperature as a red tastes really different than when it’s served cold.

That said, I’m not sure that would work with all white wines, nor do I think it would work with really accomplished wine drinkers. After all, part of many Sommelier exams is a blind tasting, where you have to identify the region, grape, and sometimes even year & producer. I’m guessing those people can figure out red versus white!

To fool the most people, I’d go with something with low acidity and very dry. Chardonnay comes to mind, if you can find one that’s not overly buttery - un-oaked might be an option. Abarino or Riax Baixas - Spanish whites - would be another option. Any of these should be in the $8-$15 range at a decent wine shop.

But really, for most people, I think the trick will be a lot easier than you think. Just make sure it’s at room-temperature or whatever temp you typically serve red, cover it up so you can’t see the color, and I’d guess many, many people wouldn’t be able to tell.

[DrFidelius]

During the show, it only needed to be identfied as wine. Not as a good red wine or any particular variety, but just that it is wine.

Tricking your SO into thinking a given dyed white wine tastes like a red is an entirely differnt trick.

[auRa]

Well, wine experts can be fooled so I don’t see why your girlfriend might not be.

The perceptual ambiguity of wine helps explain why contextual influences—say, the look of a label, or the price tag on the bottle—can profoundly influence expert judgment. This was nicely demonstrated in a mischievous 2001 experiment led by Frédéric Brochet at the University of Bordeaux. In one test, Brochet included fifty-four wine experts and asked them to give their impressions of what looked like two glasses of red and white wine. The wines were actually the same white wine, one of which had been tinted red with food coloring. But that didn’t stop the experts from describing the “red” wine in language typically used to describe red wines. One expert said that it was “jammy,” while another enjoyed its “crushed red fruit.”

I actually saw (a recreation of) this experiment in a documentary on TV a few years ago and thought it was hilarious to see the reactions of the sommeliers used when they realized what it was they had been drinking.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

One thing to keep in mind is that food flavors are influenced by what they are called. It’s not at all unusual for a food lab to develop a flavor that can be blended into various foods and called cherry, berry, sour apple or a number of other “street” names, and satisfy purchasers of those products with the result. The expectations set the experience.

So I don’t doubt at all that blind tasting of wines by non-experts can be influenced the same way - or, as in John Cleese’s case, if the influence is removed, the results will be ambiguous.

In the setting of a magic show, the only result they had to get was an audience member to be surprised that the result was indeed wine, and maybe very good wine at that. If they were expecting water, some nasty chemical taste, or a vague approximation of a wine flavor, all else is inconsequential.

[Dervorin]

@Athena

To fool the most people, I’d go with something with low acidity and very dry. Chardonnay comes to mind, if you can find one that’s not overly buttery - un-oaked might be an option. Abarino or Riax Baixas - Spanish whites - would be another option. Any of these should be in the $8-$15 range at a decent wine shop.

Perfect! Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll have look into these options.

@DrFidelius

During the show, it only needed to be identfied as wine. Not as a good red wine or any particular variety, but just that it is wine.

Tricking your SO into thinking a given dyed white wine tastes like a red is an entirely differnt trick.

I’m honestly curious, because she was adamant she could tell the difference. I’m pretty sure she can’t… and maybe this isn’t going to earn me any brownie points, but I’m going to do it anyway.

@auRa

Well, wine experts can be fooled so I don’t see why your girlfriend might not be.

Let’s see! I’ll report back with results, though it’ll be a couple of weeks yet.

@NitroPress

In the setting of a magic show, the only result they had to get was an audience member to be surprised that the result was indeed wine, and maybe very good wine at that. If they were expecting water, some nasty chemical taste, or a vague approximation of a wine flavor, all else is inconsequential.

True. But I wonder how much of food we eat is subject to conditioning in the same way. I know this isn’t going to make any surprising discoveries, and I admit to having a small amount of wanting to prove to her that it’s quite possible that she could be taken in.