Dear Grape Lady,
I love red wine. But I when I drink it my mouth turns purple. My lips, my teeth, my tongue. It makes me crazy, it feels clownish. It seems like my staining is so much worse than my husband’s. Why? I’m so sick of looking at pictures and seeing my stained mouth!
-Mrs. Stained & Bothered
Dear Mrs. Stained and Bothered,
It is not just you! I don’t have scientific proof but I have noticed that women tend to have more red wine staining around the mouth than men, I think it may have to do with our lipstick’s ability to hold on to the pigment in wine. Listerine or blotting your lips and teeth with a paper towel will generally get rid of the worse of it for pictures. Personally when I switched to a lip stain instead of lipstick I noticed a decrease in the staining. Also the heavier a wine is the more staining it well be. A light bodied Pinot Noir or Gamay will give you less additional color than a heavy bodied Syrah or Malbec. I’m not saying don’t drink heavier wines, Syrah is one of my favorite grapes. But if you are going to do a family portrait at dinner, maybe do it before opening the newest bottle of Napa Cabernet.
The reason you get staining is a reaction at the molecular level. When you take a sip of wine, the molecules of pigment and tannins, protein molecules in wine that come from the skin of the grape, interact with salivary proteins in your mouth. This meeting results in a bonding between the proteins forming larger proteins that are more visible to the human eye especially when landing on our white teeth. Proteins like to bond together. It is the same polymerization that causes tannins and pigments to form solids that look similar to coffee grounds in some red wines.
Enjoy your wines no matter the staining, it all comes out in the end,
The Grape Lady