Maceration in Winemaking: Skin Contact
Learn what maceration is, how skin contact gives red wine its color and tannins, and how winemakers use different maceration techniques to shape wine style.
Maceration is the soaking of grape skins, seeds, and stems in juice to extract color, tannins, and flavors. It is the key process that gives red wine its color and tannic structure.
If you have ever wondered why red wine is red while white wine is not, the answer lies in maceration. This fundamental winemaking process is the reason red wines have deep color, rich tannins, and concentrated flavors. Understanding maceration reveals one of the most important decisions a winemaker makes with every batch of wine.
What Is Maceration?
Maceration is the process during which grape skins, seeds, and sometimes stems remain in contact with the grape juice or fermenting wine, allowing color, tannins, flavor compounds, and aromatic molecules to be extracted from the solid material into the liquid. The term comes from the Latin “macerare,” meaning to soften or soak.
Here is the key fact that surprises many wine beginners: the juice inside almost all grapes, whether red or white varieties, is actually clear or pale in color. The deep ruby, purple, and garnet hues of red wine come entirely from pigments in the grape skin being extracted during maceration. Without skin contact, red grapes would produce white wine, which is exactly how blanc de noirs Champagne is made, a white sparkling wine from red Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes.
Why Maceration Matters
Maceration determines the fundamental character of a red wine. The duration, temperature, and intensity of skin contact directly control how much color, tannin, and flavor the finished wine will have. A short, gentle maceration produces a lighter, fruitier wine. A long, vigorous maceration produces a deeply colored, tannic, structured wine.
This makes maceration one of the winemaker’s most powerful tools for controlling style. The same grape variety, from the same vineyard, can be turned into radically different wines depending on how maceration is managed. A winemaker seeking an approachable, easy-drinking red might macerate for just five to seven days. One aiming for a cellar-worthy wine meant to age for decades might extend maceration to three or four weeks.
For WSET students, understanding maceration is essential for explaining wine style. When you taste a deeply colored, heavily tannic red and wonder how it got that way, the answer almost always involves extended maceration. When you taste a light, fruity red with gentle tannins, shorter maceration is typically responsible.
Maceration in Practice
There are several maceration techniques, each producing different results.
Cold maceration, also called cold soaking, occurs before fermentation begins. The grapes are kept at low temperatures, typically around 5 to 15 degrees Celsius, for several days. At these temperatures, alcohol is not present to extract tannins, but water-soluble color pigments and aromatic compounds are released into the juice. Cold maceration is popular in Burgundy and other Pinot Noir regions, where it enhances color and fruit aromatics without increasing tannin extraction.
Standard maceration occurs during fermentation itself. As yeast produces alcohol, the alcohol acts as a solvent that extracts tannins, anthocyanins (color pigments), and flavor compounds from the skins. Higher fermentation temperatures accelerate extraction. Most red wines undergo one to three weeks of maceration during fermentation.
Extended maceration continues after fermentation is complete, with the wine remaining on its skins for additional days or weeks. This post-fermentation maceration allows further tannin extraction and polymerization, where tannin molecules bond together and become softer and silkier. Many premium red wines, particularly those intended for aging, benefit from extended maceration.
Carbonic maceration is a distinct technique used primarily in Beaujolais to produce fresh, fruity, low-tannin wines. Whole clusters of grapes are placed in a sealed vat filled with carbon dioxide. Fermentation occurs inside each intact grape berry, producing vibrant fruit flavors with minimal tannin extraction. This is the technique behind Beaujolais Nouveau.
For white wines, maceration is generally minimal or absent. The juice is pressed away from the skins quickly to prevent tannin extraction, which would make the wine taste bitter. However, some winemakers practice deliberate skin contact with white grapes to add texture, complexity, and a golden color. Extended skin-contact white wines, often called orange wines, have become increasingly popular and can involve maceration periods of days, weeks, or even months.
Rose wine gets its pink color from brief maceration, typically just a few hours to a day or two of skin contact with red grape varieties before the juice is drained off and fermented separately.
Explore with Sommo
Understanding how maceration shapes wine style helps you predict what to expect in the glass and make better buying decisions. Sommo’s wine scanning and educational features help you learn about the winemaking techniques behind each bottle, connecting what you taste to how the wine was made.
