Orange Wine - It’s all about skin contact…
By David Keck
Let’s talk about orange wine. You heard me. Orange.
There are certainly going to be sommeliers and wine buyers who receive this newsletter for whom this topic is old news, but I’d encourage you to read on, some of these wines might be new. There will be others for whom this topic is relatively fresh and interesting, and yet others who aren’t sure what is going on. Read on.
Let’s start with definitions. The easiest and most general definition of ‘orange wine’ is that it is wine made with white grapes that have been macerated with their skins, leading to a darker color. The pigmentation of white grape skins will oxidize and gradually turn orange and eventually (if left too long), brown. The existence of skin-macerated white wines is certainly not new, and in fact, probably pre-dates ‘normal’ white wines—winemaking technology was much less refined 500 years ago.
An element of these wines that is slightly less universal is that a many of them are allowed more oxygen exposure than their white wine cousins, and often end up slightly volatile for that reason. Not always, but sometimes. Richard Betts, author, sommelier and winemaker (incidentally, he and his wife, Carla, make the Sucette and Nichon wines in our portfolio), wrote a fairly hilarious but also a propos article in Forbes entitled: “Why Tecate is Greater Than Orange Wine.” Richard is obviously proving a point, but orange wines have gone through various permutations and levels of quality that range from extremely elegant and well-made, to frankly flawed. We’d like to think that the wines in our portfolio are excellent examples of the style, they are well-made, refined, delicious (the most important part), and pair beautifully with many types of cuisine.
These are our current ‘orange’ offerings, or at least somewhat orange. Ask your sales rep. what’s still available as they tend to go quickly!
Straka Mash
We just love the organically farmed wines from Thomas Straka and the Mash is no disappointment. This wine spends 20 days on the skins followed by 10 months in neutral oak. Mash leans heavily on Welschriesling, but there is also a little Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay to give it some weight and length. Tropical but not cloying with well-balanced tannins and lifted phenolics, this is a new wine to us and we’re excited to see it make its way onto tables throughout Vermont.
Lumen Escence
From badass Will Henry and OG lady winemaker Lane Tanner at Lumen Winery comes this Santa Barbara county skin-contact Pinot Gris that JUST hit the warehouse. Pinot Gris is famous for producing ‘ramato’ skin-contact style wines in northern Italy (Pinot Grigio country), and as a grape with a lot of color (some of the grapes are often red), it works very well in this treatment. The wine spends 12 days on the skins, then 7 months in neutral oak. Pink-ish/orange-ish and all lemon curd and tangerines.
Castell d’Age Garnatxa Blanca Orange Wine No SO2
From the female-owned and -operated winery in the Alt-Penedès, this wine is made with the white-skinned Grenache Blanc. It is rich, textured, has a deep orange color, but is clean and shows lovely stone fruit on the nose and palate. Also made without SO2 (sometimes a hallmark, but again, not universal in this style of wine), the wine is as close ‘natural’ as one can be. Low intervention and from Biodynamically farmed grapes.
Kolfok Intra! The Wild
This is a beautiful example of a terrific winemaker (Stefan Wellanschitz) who likes the texture and phenolic character of a skin-fermented white wine, but wanted to retain the high-toned fruit character and elegance. As a result, he starts this wine with an intracellular fermentation (carbonic maceration, á là Beaujolais Nouveau) but after nine weeks (!!) presses the grapes and allows normal fermentation to occur in large Stockinger barrels. Mostly Grüner Veltliner with some Welschriesling, both of which express themselves really nicely with this treatment.