Orange wine has, in recent years, seen a surge in popularity among enthusiasts. But do you know what orange wine is? In this article, you will learn all about its winemaking method, how it tastes, its origins and the food and wine pairings you can make with it. You are not at the end of your surprises with this wine! So let us set off to discover orange wine.
What is orange wine?
Orange wine, also called amber wine, is a particular wine with, obviously, an orange colour. To obtain an orange wine, whole grapes are used during the fermentation process. While for white winemaking only the juice of the grapes is used, making orange wine requires keeping the grape skins, the pips and the stems: as for making red wine. It is these elements that give the tannins in wine. So, unlike the tannins in white wine, orange wine has a real tannic structure that makes it so original. We are in the habit of saying that orange wine is a white wine made like red wine.
Why is the wine orange?
This colour comes from the winemaking method explained earlier. The molecules present in the grape skins give the orange colour. This colour makes this wine particularly original and could surprise many of your friends during your next tastings. The colour can sometimes make you think of an oxidative wine, but that is not the case at all. Simon Woolf, the famous journalist and wine critic, has highlighted the first time this name was used for wine. According to his research, the term “orange wine” was used for the first time in 2004 by David Harvey, a British wine importer. He also explains that he did not want to create a new category of wines: he used this name naturally and it stuck. It has to be said that this term makes it possible to create a new vertical that would have no place alongside white wines and that could lose the consumer in their searches.
The origins of orange wine
Orange wine was born in Georgia, the cradle of wine, using a winemaking technique dating back more than 4,000 years BC. In reality, the history of orange wine is even older, since traces of this winemaking technique more than 8,000 years old have been found in the Caucasus. The Georgians then let the wine macerate in buried amphorae. These are called Qvevri. This technique then spread to the rest of Europe. This wine is now made in many regions. In particular, it is found in Europe, in the United States, in New Zealand, in Australia. Finally, in France, this wine is produced in many regions: in Alsace, in the Loire, in the Rhône valley, in the Jura, the Languedoc-Roussillon, and in Savoie. That is enough for a fine tour of France for your next tastings. Sometimes seen as a mere fad, orange wine has a thousand-year-old history and lets wine lovers find new tastes and new pairings. We think rather that amber wine is set to grow and to satisfy more and more consumers in search of new flavours.
How do you make orange wine?
To make amber wine, you have to use white grape varieties. The juice is then macerated with the grape skins, the pips and the stem. Such winemaking matches the technique used to make red wine but applied to white wine. The wine is then aged in amphorae: the Qvevri. This ageing with the various elements of the grape lets the wine obtain a tannic structure that makes all the difference.
Where can you buy orange wine?
There are many ways to get hold of amber wine. You can buy this wine online without any problem. You can also go to your wine merchant. Some wine bars also offer it, but rarely by the glass. If you want to go much further in discovering amber wine, a festival is dedicated to it every year. It is the Orange Wine Festival. It will take place in April 2020 in Slovenia: two weeks of tasting await you. That is a fine trip to plan.
Serving amber wine
The advice we give you for serving orange wine is to start between 12°C and 14°C. The serving temperature of orange wine is thus a little warmer than white wine and a little colder than the red wine serving temperature. You can then let the wine warm up gradually.
What do you eat with orange wine?
It is important to consider amber wine as genuinely accessible and not as a wine reserved for an elite of experts. So everyone can make this wine their own and find the food and wine pairings that will be perfect to go with it. Indeed, the combination of the tannins present in this wine and, at the same time, its lightness makes it a particularly interesting wine to pair, one that can be used throughout the meal. So this wine can pair equally with meat, fish, mushroom recipes and many other things. There is no doubt that you will be able to treat yourself by opening some superb bottles of this wine. It is up to you to invent the food and wine pairings you want to make.
You are now ready to answer the question “what is orange wine?”. If you want to let others benefit from this knowledge, you can share this article and, above all, taste some wine! Take the chance to make a toast to this article and to fill in a tasting sheet based on your discoveries! And good news, you can get one for free.
