Orange Juice for All

This piece is not about actual orange juice and I apologize for any deception. This is about a style of wine that is still relatively new to the modern wine world. Orange wine is made from white grapes that are pressed and allowed to macerate on their skins.

This was popularized by Josko Gravner and Stanko Radikon in the late 1990’s. Their wineries are in Friuli which is the part of Italy that shares a border with Slovenia. There aren’t too many completely new ideas though and this one originated in the country of Georgia. For thousands of years people placed berries and grapes in qvevri (clay vessels) and buried them underground to let the fermentation process do its thing in a cool place for however long it took. So as usual this is a lot of background before we talk about wine, but the connection is important. Fermenting white grapes in the same manner isn’t new, and neither is letting natural yeast ferment in a clay vessel. 

From Friuli the style has spread to a number of other regions and countries in the past 20 years. Vintners from Australia, California, France, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary produce orange wines. Key point is this style of wine has been spreading and the question burning in your mind right now is: why?

Let’s get the name out of the way before we go any further. Skin-Contact white wines is more of a mouthful but more accurately describes what these wines are. The color of the wine is dependent on the color of the grape itself. The juice inside the grapes will always be clear whether the grape is red, green or orange. The color is also dependent on how long the grapes sit on their skins, the longer the time the deeper the hue. 

The producers who make skin-contact whites tend to fall in the natural wine world (certainly the ones we carry do). There are many reasons for this but this style of wine is one that doesn’t require sulfites to be added to it. These wines are quite tannic which acts as a natural preservative. These wines also lend themselves to winemaking techniques that are not exactly standard (clay amphora vessel left fermenting outside until its ready) that also fall in line with natural winemakers. The varietals being used to make this style vary by country and region but Pinot Grigio / Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Tocai Friuliano, Ribolla Gialla, and Malvasia are all popular. 

If you have made it to the end of this piece, I applaud you. We haven’t really talked about what these wines taste like and there was a reason for this. Sadly there is no blanket taste profile for these wines, so we can’t get off easy. Some like the Foradori Pinot Grigio (pictured here on right) taste like intense sour tangerines with sharp tannins and a crazy mineral finish. The Radikon Sivi (pictured here on left) has more red sour berries with tropical citrus and a much heavier mouthfeel. We carry a wide assortment of skin contact whites outside of these and are always ready to talk about food pairings with them in store. 

We are doing an Orange Wine Dinner in collaboration with Shipwrights Daughter this Sunday, October 17th. If this article sparked some interest in you then sign up for the dinner as only a few seats remain. 

Enjoy!

- David