October 26, 2024

An Introductory Guide to Orange Wine

With Halloween upon us, let’s explore the color of the season: orange. Read on to learn what orange wine is, where it’s made, and its relationship to natural winemaking.

With the leaves changing and Halloween nearly upon us, let’s dive into the color of the season: orange. What may appear as wine’s hottest new trend, orange winemaking is, in fact, an ancient practice.

No, orange wine is not made from oranges—it’s still made from grapes. And for that reason, many winemakers prefer the terms amber wine or skin-contact white wine. They typically have an orangey hue—sometimes deep, sometimes faint. But no matter what you call it, an orange wine is worth tasting this autumn.

What is Orange Wine?

Orange wine is basically the opposite of rosé. Whereas rosé is red wine made as if it were a white, orange wine is white wine made as if it were a red. To do so, winemakers allow an orange wine to macerate on the skins of its white grapes. Typically, this process is reserved for red wine production. From the skins, a red wine gains its color and its tannins—phenolic compounds that give red wine its firm structure and that subtly bitter, drying sensation. While white grapes do not have the same pigmentation as red grapes, its skins can still impart some color, and most certainly tannin. Those tannins express themselves somewhat differently in orange wine than in red—leaving the impression of a palate-coating, beeswax texture.

Oak Barrel w/ Lees Aging

The depth of color and extent of that waxy tannic character correlates to both the grape variety and the length of time an orange wine spends in contact with the grape skins. Orange wine is not a formal category and lacks any universally accepted definition. Some might qualify a wine that has spent one or two weeks macerating as orange, even if the impact is subtle. Other orange wines experience several months of skin contact—a longer period than even a typical red. Other wines still might undergo a briefer maceration and more comfortably qualify as simply a white wine—a practice not uncommon among winemakers seeking a richer, more gastronomic profile for their whites. Orange wine can further exhibit some unique, funky aromas which also increase with time on skins.

Where is Orange Wine Made?

Orange wine can be made all around the world, but it is most famously associated with the world’s oldest wine industry in the Republic of Georgia. Experts in the category with an ancient practice of orange winemaking, Georgians traditionally macerate, ferment, and age their orange wines in giant qvevri—massive clay amphorae buried beneath the ground. The qvevri are also typically coated in beeswax, which only amplifies the resinous quality of the orange wines. Georgian orange wine can be made from any white grape, but most common are their unique indigenous varieties, such as Rkatsiteli, Kisi, and Mtsvane.

There is also a longstanding tradition of orange winemaking in the northern Adriatic coastline, particularly in Italy’s Friuli and across the border in Western Slovenia’s Brda region. The two orange wine cultures greatly resemble one another, with a particular affinity for orange wines made from Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Friulano, and Ribolla Gialla (Rebula in Slovenia). Further afield, a global rediscovery of orange wines in the last 15 years has inspired a young generation of winemakers to try their hands at the category. Today, you can find orange wines everywhere from California to Chile, Austria to Australia.

Empty Clay Wine Vessels Called Qvevri

Is Orange Wine Natural?

Natural wine is another nebulous term lacking any agreed upon definition (most involve the lack of added sulfites, but there remains room for debate), and there is nothing inherent about the winemaking process that should make orange wine “natural” above any other color. Nevertheless, orange wine has long been a darling of the natural wine movement, and many of the aforementioned young and inspired winemakers proudly identify with natural wine styles.

The natural wine movement, though, does not own orange wine entirely. Its skyrocketing popularity in the 21^st century has also been capitalized upon by the broader wine industry. You can find a lot of orange natural wine out there—but there are also a wide range of examples, many also of quality, coming from more commercial players.