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While Wine culture dictates that you shouldn’t tamper with your wine, with hundreds of hours of work put into each bottle, yet many wine professionals say it is okay to mix red and white – so which is it?
Opening a bottle of wine and appreciating it for all its complexity is magical. But somewhere deep inside you is the kid that would mix your favorite sodas as potions.
You simply can’t help but want to see where you can take your wine and you start to wonder— can you mix red and white wine?
Blasphemy or Genius?
At first, the thought of it seems scandalous— mixing red and white wine? In your wine life, you’ll no doubt meet some who are absolutely against it, but that’s okay. There’s no problem with being a wine purist but you don’t have to be one too.
Some reasons why mixing red and white wine together sounds so sacrilegious is because of a lot of wine myths. Many believe that mixing red and white wine, or drinking one right after the other, will cause stomach aches.
They could also believe that drinking red before white will give you a hangover while drinking white first won’t. In most cases, these aren’t true unless you’re drinking spoiled wine.
So, Can You Mix Red & White wine?
The truth is that there’s no problem with mixing red and white wine. In fact, many professionals in the wine industry would blend red and white wine, or blend different kinds of grapes in a wine mixture.
Before anything, if you’re trying to make rosé, that’s definitely not the way to go. Rosé is made from red grapes that macerated in their skin for some time to gain the pinkish color. Mixing white and red, while it would make a rosy-colored wine, isn’t how rosé is made.
However, if you’re looking to turn bad wine into something good, mixing might be your best bet. It could even make good wine into something great, as long as you mix it properly and choose the right kinds of wine.
The only real danger in mixing red and white wine is that you might lower its quality. Like with anything we eat or drink, mixing in things could either make it better or worse, depending on what you mix in and on how much you used.
It’s a gamble but you don’t have to worry since it doesn’t even have high stakes. Do it well and you might just find your wine blend jackpot!
Pro Tips for Wine Blending
To avoid the worst-case scenario of wasting your expensive wine, here are some tips for blending reds and whites together. It’s not foolproof but it’ll definitely be a huge help in getting you there.
1. Start Small
Don’t go gung-ho and start mixing whole bottles of wine without testing it first. Imagine that this is a wine tasting. Instead of pouring out the standard wine glass serving, pour out small, measurable portions of your wine options instead.
2. Get To Know Your Wine
Make sure you know your wine intimately or as much as you can. You don’t have to be a sommelier, just sip carefully and look up both the delicious and the less than pleasant flavors you pick up.
Examine its strengths and weaknesses, and take note of it all. Doing this is important because you don’t want to overpower your mixture or waste your wine by blending incompatible wines, right?
3. Choose A Base
After getting to know your wine, it’s time to choose your wine base. It’s recommended that you pick the weaker wine to make mixing and enhancing it easier.
This base could also be a wine that you left open for too long or that wasn’t stored properly. Make sure to choose carefully, since this will make up for most of your wine. If you have doubts about which wine to pick, choose the one with the more identifiable weaknesses.
4. Choose An Appropriate Partner
Pick a similar wine type that will make up for what your base lacks or has too much of. Since you know the weaknesses of your base, choose a partner that will counteract any unpleasantness in the base.
If it’s hard to choose, know that aged wines do well with young wine, while natives go well with natives, and so on. It’s a trial-and-error process but, so long as you understand what you want to do with your base, you’ll have more successful trials than errors.
5. Blend Your Wines Slowly
Don’t rush the process! Pour one portion of the base into your glass and add in measured batches of your partner wine bit by bit. Mix gently and sip carefully. If you’re not satisfied, add the partner wine gradually until you get your perfect blend. To be able to recreate it, make sure to keep track of each added portion.
As you do this, don’t give in to impatience and just enjoy the process. You’ll either come up with a genius mixture or learn that those wines weren’t meant to be together.
There’s an amazing potential to unlock when you venture into mixing wines and we can’t wait until you experience it for yourself!
That’s one wine myth debunked but how about others? Like with the wine mixing myth, you might also believe some other myths that don’t have much basis.
Debunking Other Wine Myths
Reds Are For Meat While Whites Are For Fish
This is a great rule of thumb for beginners but it’s flawed. It’s gained so much popularity because it’s simple, easy to remember, and is backed by sound logic, though it’s not as foolproof as people believe.
Red wine is usually higher in tannins while red meat is usually fatty. Though tannins can feel a bit dry or unpleasant, pairing it with the fatty food softens it up and enhances meat flavor.
White wine typically has higher acidity. Fish pairs amazingly with acidic flavors and white wine does well in this simple pairing.
However, the flavors of the food and the wine are more important than color. There are deeper whites that would pair well with savory dishes while there are lighter reds that go perfectly with delicate food.
When considering wine pairings, consider the flavors of what you’ll be eating and match from there.
Screw Tops Signal Low-Quality Wine
Corks are a staple in the wine experience but as wine became more accessible, packaging possibilities expanded. Now, we have boxed wine, canned wine, synthetic corks, and screw-top wine bottles.
Somewhere down the line, alternative wine packaging became a sign of inferior wine quality but that’s simply not true— especially with screw tops!
Screw tops are quickly dominating the wine world but it can’t seem to shed its unearned negative reputation. Corks are great and add to the wine experience but they’re not infallible, especially with sensitive natural corks.
There’s a lot that can go wrong with corks and screw tops are an amazing alternative.
In fact, screw tops are known to be more consistent, long-lasting, easier to use, and more affordable than corked bottles. High-end wineries in Australia and New Zealand have even switched to screw-tops to ensure quality wine in every bottle.
All Wine Gets Better With Age
If you dig out a bottle of wine from a closet you forgot about, this, unfortunately, doesn’t mean you aged it and made it better.
Nowadays, wine is made to drink right away, not to age. It’s become a trend since there are more people interested in drinking wine right away than there are who want to age it.
Everyday reds usually have a five-year lifespan, while whites are good for two to three years after you buy it. Past that, your wine would change in a way it wasn’t designed to.
If you see an expiration date on your wine bottle, better take it seriously and drink it before it goes bad. If you want to try aging wine, you’d have to do additional research, since only about 1% of the wine produced today is meant for aging.
After debunking this myth, the term “aged like a fine wine” will never be the same again.
In Summary
We hope we could answer your question- whether you can mix red and white wine. There’s more to wine than you know now and there are infinite ways to make your wine experience better.
Start your wine fun by experimenting with different red and white wine blends. While you’re at it, try learning more about wine pairings and start looking into different wine packaging.
We’ve debunked a handful of wine myths for you but don’t stop there! This is your chance to explore the wine world on your own.
