Orange wine: Say cheers to wine's new hue - YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Food Orange wine Say cheers to wine’ s new hue By Simon Mills - August 21, 2022 It’s the top tipple in fashionable drinking spots, but what exactly is orange wine? Convert Simon Mills clears up any confusion Orange is the new black, darlings. Or, since us oenophiles love to speak fluent franglais luvvie when we are discussing tipples, perhaps that should be, l’orange c’est le nouveau pinot noir? And for imbibers of the old school it is all very confusing… and more than a little bit weird. You see, for decades, centuries even, the dinner table decision was always ‘red or white’? A muscular Burgundy with pork or a fruity Malbec with one’s beef. Perky Riesling straight from the fridge went a treat with fish, a chilled Chardonnay was, and is, a perfect match for roast chicken. Easy. (The pink pleasure of ice-cold rosé? Delightful, yes, but strictly for Balearic and Côte d’Azur holidays.) Now a fourth, rogue tone* has arrived to muddy the vinous spectrum’s benign apartheid and orange wine is simply everywhere. Fashionable London wine bars have long been introducing ‘Orange Wednesdays’ (remember the old Orange mobile network ads giving away movie tickets in the noughties?) and Hackney restaurant Silver Lining launched an orange-only wine bar with a menu of 50 to choose from. Not tried it yet? Here’s what you need to know. First of all, orange wine is not wine made with oranges. Neither is it a turbocharged Sunny Delight or alcopop Tango or an ‘Easy Wine’ served by a budget airline. It’s actually a white wine variant which is produced by leaving the grape skins and seeds in contact with the juice to create a deep orange-hued nectar, tonally presenting as pale terracotta right through to a lurid Aperol colour. Ramato (derived from the Italian for copper) wine has been part of the Italian portfolio since the mid-19th century, but the category is much newer for us Brits, the term ‘orange wine’ having been coined by David Harvey of British wine importer Raeburn Fine Wines as recently as 2004. It’s now produced in most of the world’s key wine-growing countries. The vineyards in northeastern Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, along the border of Slovenia, mostly deploy what is known as a ‘skin contact’ technique. White grapes – mostly Sauvignon Vert (Friulano), Ribolla Gialla and Pinot Grigio – are mashed up whole with flesh, seeds and skin and left to ferment in a large ceramic vat for anything from four days to a year. This ‘low intervention’ process mostly eschews the deployment of yeast and sulphur additives giving it a strangely sour top note and, as a result of the prolonged oxidation, a definite nuttiness and higher tannin levels. The vintners will tell you that this unique process makes orange wine the perfect autumnal tipple, combining the crisp freshness of white wine and the complexity of sophisticated reds. First time imbibers, however, might find it something of an acquired taste. My initial mouthful of orange, served at room temperature in a Michelin-starred restaurant’s wine cellar in a remote part of the Dolomites in Northern Italy, was not a great success. I clearly remember a powerful taste of rust. Thank goodness for spittoons. When the kindly Tyrolean sommelier explained the orange wine process to me it seemed like a bit of a scam – a clever way to use up the unwanted grape skins and rebrand it as a new kind of mountain hooch for suggestible yuppies. Since that evening six years ago, I’d never been tempted to try a glass of anything in Donald Trump’s skin tone. So when I tried a bottle of (chilled) Romanian Solara wine, with its big ripe orange on the label, my taste buds were braced for bitterness. But instead I got candied apricots, peaches and a herbal apothecary hint. Made partly from the Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay grapes with which I am well familiar, but also exotic ones I’d never heard of – Feteasca Alba and Tamaioasa Romaneasca – Solara is a product of the Cramele Recas Estate, owned by Englishman Philip Cox. And I have to report that it is refreshing. Further glasses bore a long finish of vanilla and pears. While wondering whether I could, blindfolded, tell apart this orange from a Trentino white, my girlfriend and I realised we had polished off the whole bottle and were feeling ever so slightly tango’d. ‘Na zdravje!’ as they say on the Italian/Slovenian border. ORANGE IS MY LATEST CRUSH YOU’s wine expert Charlotte Kristensen picks her favourites I first tried orange wine a few years ago at an Italian restaurant. I was captivated by its electric tangerine colour and exotic fragrance, marrying the perfume of a white wine with the body of a red wine. Common flavours include citrus peel, apricot and honey; nuances of perfume, tea and spices; nutty hints; and sometimes a savoury and salty hit. They’re best served around 12-14C to allow their complex flavours to release and their tannins to soften. Just pop them in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving – they go well with umami-rich dishes and Middle Eastern and Asian flavours. VALENTINA PASSALACQUA CALCARIUS ORANGE 2020 Puglia, Italy, 11%, £22.95 for 1 litre, wineandgreene.com A crowd-pleasing, fresh and vibrant orange wine from Puglia made from the Falanghina grape. It has flavours of fresh orange juice, rhubarb and peach with a hint of thyme and a chalky-mineral finish. Lower in alcohol than many white wines, it’s a good lunchtime option. Thanks to its refreshing character, this quaffable wine can be enjoyed by itself, and the litre format allows for an extra top-up. LUIS FELIPE EDWARDS MACERAO ORANGE WINE 2021 Itata, Chile, 12.5%, £8.99, Waitrose This comes from a region known for its mineral-rich soils and old bush vines. It’s made from the Moscatel de Alexandria grape, which also goes into the Chilean brandy called pisco (one of my favourite cocktails is a pisco sour). The grapes are hand-picked, and the wine undergoes natural fermentation before macerating on the skins for three months. It has elegant flavours of rose petals, dried mango, blanched almonds and a hint of saffron. TELIANI VALLEY KAKHURI NO 8 2020 Kakheti, Georgia, 12.5%, £12.99, kwoff.co.uk This award-winning wine from eastern Georgia is made from a blend of grape varieties – Rkatsiteli, Kakhuri Mtsvane, Khikhvi and Kisi – hard to pronounce but easy to swallow! After fermentation, the wine stays in contact with the skins for six months, producing a rich, gastronomic wine with flavours of dried apricots, honeycomb, lemon and pistachio with earthy and black tea nuances. LITMUS ORANGE 2021 Surrey, England, 12.5%, £18.50, litmuswines.com A complex and inviting orange wine made in the UK from Bacchus, a grape that usually produces light, floral and zesty white wines – though this is quite different. The wine spent four weeks in contact with its skins, producing flavours of kumquat, grapefruit and jasmine flowers, with a hint of roasted nuts and aniseed. It gives a lovely warming sensation. A great wine to transition from summer into autumn. CASA BALAGUER TRAGOLARGO BLANCO 2021 Alicante, Spain, 13%, £17, bottleapostle.com A glorious, organic, sunny orange wine from southern Spain. Made from a blend of Moscatel and Malvasia grapes, it’s incredibly fragrant with hints of orange blossom, mandarin and yuzu, plus undertones of incense, clove and pine – I would wear this wine! Passionate about low-intervention production, its makers avoid the use of additives, machinery or practices that overly manipulate the wine. The result is characterful and delicious. M& S TBILVINO QVEVRIS ORANGE WINE 2020 Kakheti, Georgia, 12%, £10, ocado.com Georgia is known as the ‘cradle of wine’ as it’s believed to be the oldest wine-producing country with continuous production going back 8,000 years. This honours the traditional Georgian method of skin fermentation in large clay vessels buried underground. It’s made from the indigenous Rkatsiteli grape and has flavours of orange rind, pear, a hint of honeyed peaches, camomile tea and a sprinkle of white pepper. *Sixth if you count Portugal’s Vinho Verde (green) and France’s Vin Jaune (yellow). 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