Orange Wine Time
No, it is not made with oranges. An orange wine is made like red wine but using white grapes, leaving the skins in contact with the juice to extract colour, tannin and flavour. Common flavour descriptors of orange wines include dried orange rind, bruised apple, jackfruit, juniper, sourdough, hazel nuts and linseed oil. They can be quite drying, having tannins like a red wine and it is not unusual for them to have a touch of sourness to them in a similar fashion to a sour beer. Finally, there is the funk that some, but not all, orange wines can display. This is often described as a farmyard like aroma that can be somewhat like marmite – you either love it or hate it!
Orange wine might seem like a very modern wine style, some have even called it a fad. 20 years ago, no-one was talking about orange wine, it is only over the last decade that the wine style has risen in prominence, mostly thanks to the natural wine movement. Do not be fooled by the idea that this is a modern trend because orange wines date back to wine’s humble beginnings some 8000 years ago. In some places this culture of making white wines using the skins of the grapes persisted, such as in Georgia. As wine presses were developed around 1600–1100 BC it became possible to press the grapes away from the skins and thus began the evolution of white wine as opposed to orange wine. In modern times these lighter, fresher wines became much more popular than the heavier more tannic orange wines and it is only over the last decade we have seen skin contact white wines make a resurgence.
Whilst the natural wine movement helped make this style more popular to modern wine drinkers, they are not inherently made using ‘natural’ processes that are any different from making a red wine and now the style is more sought after there are plenty of commercial orange wines that can be found on the market. For those of you who want to discover more about orange wine why not try one of the following wines:
Solara, Orange Wine, Romania 2021 £12.95
Made in Romania this is a white wine macerated on its skins, and a great example of the latest evolution in wine styles. A textural wine, full of layers and complexity, but still fresh and clean it surprises and delights from the first taste. Created from indigenous and international varieties which combine together to produce a pound for pound champion that is impossible not to love.
Fin Wines, Mahady, Australia 2021 £24.95
Hand Picked 100% Whole bunch Roussanne which undergoes Carbonic Maceration for 10 days. Pressed to old oak. Stone fruit on the nose with a touch of plumeria and caramel, light and fresh, savoury with light quince bitterness. No filtering or fining.
Noita Winery, Flux Lumen, Finland 2020 £32.95
Riesling Italico (44%) Furmint (37%) Gruner Veltliner (19%) with 36 hours cool skin maceration before pressing in stainless steel. Natural white 100% hand-harvested organic grapes from Burgenland, Austria. Lots of funk in the aroma, a lovely rounded white with white peach and pear with only a delicate natural funk on the palate