Thursday Virtual Happy Hour: Orange Wine - Fad or Fancy?
Details
This week, we are going to be tasting orange wine. Orange wine is a bit of a misnomer. It is not a wine made with oranges, nor is it a Mimosa cocktail (a blend of 1 part orange juice to 2 parts sparkling wine.) Orange wine is something entirely different. It’s a type of white wine made by leaving the grape skins and seeds in contact with the juice, creating a deep orange-hued finished product.
To make an orange wine, you first take white grapes, mash them up, and then put them in a large vessel (often cement or ceramic). Then, you typically leave the fermenting grapes alone for four days to sometimes over a year with the skins and seeds still attached. This is a natural process that uses little to no additives, sometimes not even yeast. Because of all this, they taste very different from regular white wines and have a sour taste and nuttiness from oxidation.
These wines have been described as robust and bold, with honeyed aromas of jackfruit (a fleshy tropical fruit), hazelnut, brazil nut, bruised apple, wood varnish, linseed oil, juniper, sourdough, and dried orange rind. On the palate, they’re big, dry, and even have tannin like a red wine with a sourness similar to fruit beer. Often Orange wines are so intense that you might want to make sure you’re sitting down when you first taste them.
Because of their boldness, Orange wines pair well with equally bold foods, including curry dishes, Moroccan cuisine, Ethiopian cuisine (like those spongelike pancakes called Injera), Korean dishes with fermented kimchi (Bibimbap), and traditional Japanese cuisine, including fermented soybeans (Natto). Due to the high phenolic content (tannin and bitterness) and the nutty tartness they exhibit, orange wines pair with a wide variety of meats, ranging from beef to fish.
We have a choice of videos to watch including:
- https://youtu.be/mHbChJ17goo - What is Orange Wine? - Somm Tips with Keri Levens (1:26)
- https://youtu.be/nXDzpn6cOFM - What is Orange Wine? - Dry Farm Wines (1:34)
- https://youtu.be/WRLnHSGZfw4 - What Is Orange Wine - The Grape Explorer (10:20)
- https://youtu.be/kq4makj_Ocs - Winzer Krems Orange Grüner Veltliner - Vinetribe (1:54)
So, pick up a bottle of your favorite wine, and watch a couple of videos. Let us know what you’re drinking and eating, and, if possible, the region from which your wine comes. Do you have any comments (positive or negative) about the videos? And, as always, tell us what’s going on in your life - what's happening with you, how you're feeling about things, updates, successes, challenges - as much or as little as you’re willing to disclose. We are in this together. And - thank goodness - we have wine!
Cheers!!