Orange wine has now been trending for four or five years as “vinous exotica.” It is become the fourth wine color, after red, white and rosé. It is a bit of an inaccurate name as it does not refer to wine made of oranges nor is it a mimosa cocktail. Orange wine is completely different from what its name suggests. The term orange wine was coined by Anglo Saxons to describe a group of wines made from white grapes.

 

 

To make orange wine, one needs to use white grapes, squash them and put it in a container or vessel, often a large one. They are kept for a period of 4 days to more than a year with their skin and seeds still attached to them. The making of orange wine is usually a natural process with very little or no additional product, not even yeast.

 

They are made of a healthy collection of grapes and by natural processes: natural fermentation, no yeast, no cooling the fermentation phase. Moreover, orange wines are usually not filtered before being bottled up. Since orange wines are made of healthy grapes and are made through natural processes, they acquire a self-protection characteristic. Therefore, only a small amount of sulfur is needed to keep the wine stable.

 

Orange wines are known to have a bold and robust flavor, accompanied with honeyed aromas of jackfruit, Brazil nut, hazelnut, wood varnish, bruised apple, sourdough along with a few others. On the palate, the orange wine has a dry taste with sourness similar to that of beer.

 

 

Orange wine productions are spread globally across different regions. Most of the wine production takes place in Slovenia, Italy. Other places where orange wine production can be found includes; Georgia, United States, Australia, France, South Africa and Australia. Mostly wine growers are using traditional methods to produce the wine.

 

The orange wine producers are mostly farmers and most of the orange wine comes from small or medium family estates. They are wines with a special touch, for the processing of grapes and wine involves a lot of hard manual labor, as well as continuous watching over the quality and ageing process.

 

Due to their unique characteristic, orange wines are considered as food. They accompany different sorts of foods within the surrounding regions. Due to their kind of production, orange wine can supplement the kinds of food that one would prefer enjoying with red wine. They are extraordinarily paired up together with fish. Mostly the Japanese suggest that orange wine goes perfectly well with sushi and sashimi.

 

Moreover, their boldness pairs up excellently with foods such as curry dishes, Moroccan and Ethiopian cuisines, and Korean cuisine with kimchi. Since orange wines have a strong bitterness, along with a nutty flavor, it pairs well with different kinds of meat dishes.

 

Made by dedicated and hard working producers, orange wines don’t come cheap but have a unique and spectacular flavor and their fame is spreading globally at a rapid rate. Some of the famous orange wines include; Tbilvino Qvevris 2011, Cos Pithos Bianco 2012, Serragghia Bianco Zibibbo, Weingut Sepp & Maria Muster Erde 2012 and a lot more.

 

By: Chris Hartland

Contact:media@kazzit.com

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