Orange wine is a bit of a misnomer. It is not a wine made with oranges, nor is it a Mimosa cocktail (a blend of 1 part orange juice to 2 parts sparkling wine.) 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.
This is a 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.
“Make sure you’re sitting down when you taste your first orange wine.”
Let’s thank Simon Woolf over at Decanter, who found out that British wine importer David Harvey coined the term “Orange Wine” Raeburn Fine Wine . He used it to describe this non-interventionist style of white winemaking.
You may also hear the term “Ramato,” which means “auburn,” in Italian, and typically refers to Italian Pinot Grigio made in an orange wine style.
What Does It Taste Like?
These wines have been described as robust and bold, with honeyed aromas of jackfruit (a fleshy tropical fruit), 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 Orange wines are so intense that you might want to make sure you’re sitting down when you first taste them.
TIP: The deep colour of orange wine comes from lignin in grape seeds.
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