Orange Wines

Orange wine is a bit of a misnomer. It is not wine made with oranges, nor is it a Mimosa cocktail. Orange wine is something entirely different.

To make an orange wine, you first take white grapes, mash them up, and then put them in a large vessel (often cement or ceramic). Then, you typically leave the fermenting grapes alone for four days to sometimes over a year with the skins and seeds still attached.

Orange winemaking is a very natural process that uses little to no additives, sometimes not even yeast. Because of all this, they taste very different from regular white wines and have a sour taste and nuttiness from oxidation.

Orange wines have been described as robust and bold, with honeyed aromas of jackfruit, hazelnut, brazil nut, bruised apple, wood varnish, linseed oil, juniper, sourdough, and dried orange rind.

On the palate, they’re big, dry, and even have tannin like a red wine with a sourness similar to fruit beer. Often they’re so intense that you might want to make sure you’re sitting down when you taste your first orange wine.