"Orange wine" is a type of wine that is somewhere between red and white wine. It is not necessarily a wine made from oranges.
The way it is made can be explained as "using white grapes and making it like red wine."
Generally, when making white wine, the skins and seeds of the grapes are removed and the juice is extracted. Wine is made by fermenting only the juice.
On the other hand, orange wine is made by fermenting the juice of white grapes while they are soaked with the skins and seeds (red wine is made using black grapes , which are soaked with the skins and seeds). By doing so, the components of the skins and seeds are transferred to the liquid, resulting in a wine with an orange-ish color that is different from regular white wine.
By making use of the ingredients from the skins and seeds in this way, orange wine is richer intannins , which are the bitter components, than regular white wine. Tannins have antioxidant properties, so there is also the benefit that the addition of sulfites can be kept to a minimum, making orange wine popular with people who prefer more natural wines.
Its flavor is characterized by a complex umami flavor derived from the skin and seeds, and a moderate astringency. This wine pairs very well with meat dishes.
A deep orange color will be more astringent, while a lighter orange color will be less astringent. The color and intensity of the astringency will depend on how long the skin and seeds are left in contact with the juice.
Orange wine is something we hear about a lot these days, but its origins date back about 8,000 years.
It originated in Georgia, a small country in Eastern Europe, located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
Georgia's traditional winemaking method is to put the skins and juice together in a porcelain vessel called a "qvevri", bury it in the ground, and let it ferment and age slowly over a long period of time. However, during the long period of time under the rule of Islamic countries and the Soviet Union, winemaking went into decline.
Orange wine has been popularized again in modern times by natural wine producers in Friuli, Italy. Radikon and Josko Gravner started making Georgian-style wine, and Friuli has become one of the world's leading orange wine producing regions.
By the way, "orange wine" is a coined term that began to be used in the 2000s, and was originally called "amber wine" in Georgia. Both names are well established in the market, so it is convenient to remember that "orange wine" = "amber wine."
Orange wine tends to have a more bitter taste when chilled, so it is often drunk without being chilled.
