Orange wine is having a moment. You're likely to find them on the menu at the hippest restaurants in Brooklyn, Berkeley, or Silverlake. Or maybe your cool, well-dressed, always effortlessly-beautiful friend opened a bottle the last time she had you over. The first orange wine I had was on a warm early-summer evening at a trendy veg-forward restaurant in Chicago, and I wonder if I've grown an affinity to orange wines simply because I loved that restaurant so much.
But what are orange wines?
To state the obvious, they're not made from orange grapes, just like how how rosé isn't made from pink grapes. In fact, orange wines are kind of the opposite of rosé. Where rosé is made from red grapes with minimal skin contact, orange wine is made with white grapes with maximal skin contact. Orange winemakers effectively coax tannins out from white grapes. The longer the skins sit with the wine, the deeper orange color the wine takes on.
Just as in white, red, and rosé varieties, the flavor of orange wines varies drastically from bottle to bottle. But to generalize, orange wines tend to be tart and bold. They're dry with hints of sweetness. Orange wines are bolder versions of their white wine brothers and sisters.
Still, as much as I read about wines, I learn the most from actually drinking them. So if anyone wants to do an orange wine tasting night soon, hit me up.
And that first orange wine I fell in love with? 2015 New York Miscreant.
