Orange Wine: Trending For All The Right Reasons

You may have seen Orange Wine lurking on the menus of on-trend restaurants or being pushed your way by an eager sommelier. And while it has yet to burst into the mainstream, orange wine has built an impressive cult following in the last couple of decades. 

With a colour ranging from a glorious tangerine hue to a more subdued golden quality, orange wine is beautifully photogenic. But what gives orange wine its extraordinary colour? What does it taste like? And what do you pair it with? We take a deeper look below.

Not From Oranges!

While the lovely amber hue may suggest otherwise, orange wine is not made from oranges, nor is it artificially coloured. Orange wine is all-natural! It’s made by leaving the skins on white grapes during fermentation. In a nutshell, orange wine is a type of white wine that is being made like a red wine.

This style of winemaking has actually been around for centuries and is one of the oldest wine types in the world. Just like red, white, sparkling, and rose wine, orange wine is made from pressing and fermenting grapes. However, what is different with orange wine is the state the grape is in when it is processed.

To make white wines, winemakers remove the skins and pips from the grape before pressing them into juice. This removes a lot of the naturally occurring tannins but also dictates the colour. Without grape skins, the grape juice will produce white wine.

Now, to make red wine, winemakers leave the grape skins on during production. This creates wines that are higher in tannins but are also deeply red in colour. This is also how rosés are created, except winemakers leave the grape skins on for a much shorter amount of time, resulting in wines with a pretty pink colour.

Orange wines (or skin-contact wines) are created using white grapes with their skins on. This means that, while the crushed grapes are fermenting, they take on a more tannic quality from their skins and pips, along with a deeper colour. Most skin-contact wines are more of a golden yellow than an actual orange, but some result in bright amber wine.

Its History

Although the term “orange wine” is relatively new, the style of wine production is ancient. Historically, orange wines were simply referred to as white wines made using grape skins, or skin-contact wine. Traditional Georgian winemaking involves an 8,000-year-old process of fermenting crushed whole berries in clay vessels called Qvevri, then sealing the jars with clay or beeswax and burying them underground to keep cool. When made with white grape varieties like the ancient Rkatsiteli, this yields an acidic, golden-hued wine. The style remained popular in the countries of Georgia, Greece and Slovenia. The process was thought to result in less waste and greater shelf life.

In the early 2000s, this ancient wine production technique experienced a resurgence when winemakers started experimenting with Qvervi winemaking. Today, Orange wine is produced in multiple regions in Italy, Slovenia, Greece, Portugal, California, France, South Africa, Australia, and more…

Are they natural?

Orange wines have become associated with the natural wine movement since their high levels of tannins mean that the wine can be bottled without the addition of sulfur dioxide. The term “natural wine” lacks a clear definition, but natural wines are often unfiltered, contain no (or low levels of) additives, and are produced on biodynamic vineyards using traditional wine production techniques. Many orange wines fall under this umbrella, but certainly not all.

What do they taste like?

Because orange wine is made from a range of different white grapes, it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact flavour profile of orange wines, as each variety will taste different from the last. However, due to the presence of grape skins in its production, orange wine is much higher in tannins than white wines. This results in wines that are complex and interesting.

Generally, orange wines are described as being robust and full-bodied with a great depth of flavours akin to that of red wine and the refreshing qualities of white wine.

Find out more with our curated range of Orange Wines: