Let's talk about something akin to the "malolactic fermentation" bit. Red wines are red because when they ferment the juice, they leave the grape peels in the

Let's talk about something akin to the "malolactic fermentation" bit. Red wines are red because when they ferment the juice, they leave the grape peels in the barrel. The peel's color is what give a wine that dark red color hue. (Try squeezing the juice out of red grapes. You'll find that the outcome doesn't have the same color as red wine!) Now, peels have things called "tannins" which give fruit peels their bitter flavor. If you've ever had tea which was steeped for a very long time, and is thus very bitter, you are tasting tannins. Which is an interesting point - we would all easily tell the difference between strongly-brewed tea and mild tea. Or coffee. And we might have a preference for one versus the other. The taste of wine - being that it is "brewed" in grape skins - is affected in an identical way! But we never ask "is tea bullshit?" because we can all very well tell the difference between certain flavors of tea. This is why the "red food coloring" part gets to me. A red wine that was lightly steeped is likely to taste similar to a white wine! There's not enough information to know. This is not to say that marketing, color, price, etc are not huge factors in the enjoyment of wine. But at the end of the day, the taste of wine is affected by the same things that would affect any other fruit or leaf-based food, so the idea that wine is any more bullshit than eggs, maple syrup, or tea doesn't really coincide with our personal experiences.