Zara Wilkens | 17 hours ago

Orange Wine, Explained Without the Lecture

Orange wine tastes as good as it looks. Sometimes peachy and tropical, sometimes floral and savoury, often textural, always capable of making a table look approximately 40 per cent more fun.

It can also attract explanations with the length and emotional weight of a minor thesis. We will not be doing that. Here is orange wine without the lecture: what it is, why it has colour, what it tastes like and where to begin.

What is orange wine? First, it is not made from oranges

Orange wine is made from white-wine grapes fermented with their skins. Most conventional white wine is pressed away from the skins before fermentation. Leave the juice and skins together—as you would when making red wine—and those skins contribute colour, aroma, flavour and tannin.

A few days of contact might create a pale gold or blush wine with gentle texture. Weeks or months can produce deeper amber colour, firmer grip and flavours that lean towards dried fruit, tea, spice, nuts and herbs. “Orange wine” is therefore a broad family, not one fixed taste.

What does orange wine taste like?

The bright end of the spectrum can be wonderfully refreshing: peach, nectarine, mandarin, mango, flowers and iced tea, with a little savoury grip. Deeper examples may bring apricot, citrus peel, honey, herbs, nuts and a pleasing tannic chew.

That texture is the giveaway. It sits somewhere between a white and a light red: white-wine freshness, red-wine shape. Tropical can live beside salty. Floral can meet grippy. Cloudy is possible, but not compulsory. Weird is optional.

A very short history, promise

Skin-fermenting white grapes is ancient rather than new. Georgia has an 8,000-year winemaking history, including white grapes fermented with skins in qvevri—large clay vessels traditionally buried underground. Italy and Slovenia helped drive the style’s modern international revival, but they did not invent it.

And what is ramato?

Ramato means copper-coloured and is particularly associated with Pinot Grigio from north-eastern Italy. Pinot Gris—same grape, different name—has grey-pink skins rather than the green-gold skin many people picture on a white grape. Leave the juice on those skins and the wine can take on a beautiful blush, rose-gold or copper tone.

Pinot Gris is not the only white-wine variety with pinkish or reddish skins, but it is one of the best-known. That is why you may spot a skin-contact Pinot Gris on the shelf looking as though white, rosé and orange wine all had a very attractive meeting.

Five places to start

Orange wine runs from barely blushing to properly amber, so the best first bottle depends on how much texture and adventure you want. These are five useful doors in.

Mulline Skin Contact Pinot Gris

A local Geelong route into the style. Pinot Gris skins bring a subtle blush rather than fluorescent orange, with freshness and gentle grip keeping the wine light on its feet. A smart choice when you want to understand skin contact without beginning at the loudest end of the room.

Koerner Pigato Vermentino

An excellent entry point from Watervale in the Clare Valley. Vermentino spends time on skins, then rests in steel: peach, iced tea and refreshment are the headline acts. The 2024 release spent 20 days on skins and landed at just 10.3% alcohol, proof that texture does not have to mean heaviness.

Momento Mori Fistful of Flowers

A hallmark Australian skin-contact wine from Dane Johns and the Momento Mori family. Moscato Giallo and Vermentino turn up the florals—marigold, blossom, stone fruit—while a cool, salty line keeps the whole thing alive. Dane calls it his “wine for the people”; we call it a bottle that keeps hitting the mark.

Italian Plastic Golden

Golden says orange wine in full colour: hay, nectarine and mango on the nose; salty peach and nougat through the mouth. Ten days on skins give it texture without removing the ease. Friendly, sunlit and very happy near a plate of something salty.

Azimut Brisat Orange

From the Suriol family’s Azimut project in Penedès, this is a changing blend of local, organically farmed grapes. “Brisat” is the Catalan term for a skin-contact white. A short skin ferment and time in underground concrete make it fresh, fruity and lightly grippy rather than heavy—a reminder that the landscape of orange wine keeps moving. Maybe the grass is greener sometimes. Or at least more golden.

How cold should it be?

Serve lighter orange wines cool, around the temperature you would give a full-bodied white. More structured amber wines can come up a little warmer so their aromas and texture have room to move. If it tastes quiet straight from the fridge, leave it in the glass for ten minutes. Wine is allowed to wake up.

What should I eat with it?

Skin-contact wine is an excellent table operator. Acidity refreshes, tannin handles fat and the savoury flavours play well with spice. Try curries, roast chicken, grilled vegetables, hard cheese, charcuterie, dumplings, kimchi, mushrooms or anything involving saffron. Orange wine can go where a delicate white feels lost and a red feels like too much.

How to choose without guessing

Ask how long the wine spent on skins. It is not a perfect scale, but shorter contact often means lighter colour and gentler grip.

Say what you actually want: “tropical and refreshing,” “floral and light,” or “amber and properly textural” gives us far more to work with than “not too weird.”

Do not judge quality by colour or cloudiness. Pale can be complex; deep orange can be clean and precise; clear wine can still have plenty of texture.

Treat the bottle like wine, not a dare. The best orange wines are compelling because they are delicious, not merely unusual.

The golden conclusion

Orange wine is simply white grapes given time with their skins—and the results can travel from a pale, refreshing blush to deep amber and serious grip. Start with the mood you want, not the colour you think you should understand.

Browse our orange wines or ask us for a first bottle. We can keep the explanation short and the glass full.

A few bottles we think are worth knowing about...

We always feel so lucky to be able to stock wonderful things on the shelf that we think will bring some level of discovery, excitement but above all else quality for you. Some are already established names. Others are producers we think you’ll be hearing us wax lyrical about in store. Either way, if you see something interesting on the shelf, ask us about it. We’re always happy to point you towards something new.

Good times call for Claret xx

Zara Wilkens

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