A Beginner’s Guide to Orange Wine: Part 2
The tasting bit
In last week’s post, I answered the often-asked question of what orange wine actually is – and hopefully straightened out a few common misconceptions in the process. In short: it has nothing to do with oranges, not all orange wines are natural wines, and when you hear the term “skin contact” it means grape skins + grape juice (not some ancient grape-crushing method!).
This week, it’s the fun part: you’ve opened your bottle of orange wine, you’re about to taste what’s in the glass, and you’re thinking about what to eat with it. Let’s crack on.
What do orange wines taste like?
Of course, saying that all orange wines taste a certain way would be like saying that all white wines taste a certain way. Impossible. But it’s still reasonable to make a few generalisations – just like you might with reds or whites.
There’s something about orange wines that often (if not always) taste a bit, well, orange. It might be a trick of the mind when something that colour hits your tastebuds, but I almost always think of apricots and orange peel. It’s a combination of stone fruit and tartness that seems to come across in a lot of orange wines.
If you’ve ever tasted an orange wine yourself, you might also be wondering why the texture feels kind of different, too. That’s because tannins come from grape skins. So that tannic, mouth-drying quality that some red wines have is likely to be present in many orange wines as well. (Incidentally, that’s another reason why I often think of apricots and peaches, with their fuzzy, tongue-puckering skins.)
What should you eat with orange wines?
Again, that’s a question with a lot of different answers. But wine people are generally in agreement that orange wines tend to be food friendly. That term also gets bandied around a lot, so let’s break down what we mean by that: the idea is that there are certain components in the wine that complement (either by enhancing or contrasting) certain elements in the food.
To make that more concrete: orange wines are generally dry, relatively high in acidity and might have a hint of tanginess to them. That would work well with salty foods (because the salt would soften the acidic edges) and fatty foods (because the tang would cut through the fat). In other words, orange wine and cheese are very good friends.
The full-bodied texture that orange wines take from their tannins is also a good match for proteins in food: the satisfying bite of a chicken thigh or a jumbo shrimp kind of latches onto the texture of the wine. (This is a bit hard to explain, but try it and you’ll see what I mean.)
And finally, orange wines are well-loved for their drinkability with traditionally hard-to-pair foods. Orange wines that have floral flavours and apricot aromas will elevate a spicy dish, without causing the chilli to overpower everything (which is often a risk with, say, a spicy red wine). Orange wines that lean towards the more “natural” end of the spectrum, with a slightly fermented twang, will be a good match for fermented foods like kimchi.
Four orange wines to try (even if you’re not convinced)
I will be the first to admit that some natural orange wines taste like kombucha (see above re the fermented twang). There’s nothing wrong with kombucha, of course. But if I’m ordering a glass of wine, I want it to taste like wine. The examples below are made using a variety of methods – from conventional to organic to natural – but none of them taste like kombucha. So they’re a good gateway for orange-virgins.
Quartomoro, Vernaccia sulle bucce, Sardinia, Italy (2023)
A super accessible orange wine, Quartomoro in Sardinia uses Vernaccia grapes fermented with naturally occurring yeasts. Fully filtered and funk-free, it’s aromatic with honeysuckle, mandarins and apricots, richly textured and delicious with cheese. Available via Decántalo (currently at a 5% discount!).
Winzer Krems, Grüner Veltliner, Niederösterreich, Austria (2023)
Grüner Veltliner is Austria’s signature crisp white, which expresses itself completely differently as an orange wine. I would peg it as a full-bodied white rather than an orange, which went spectacularly with spicy Mexican food. Available via Gall & Gall.
The Green Merits, Verdil, Valencia, Spain (2023)
I tried this Valencian Verdil at a wine bar in Amsterdam, and loved its fresh orange blossom aromas and peachy flavours all by itself, but it would go equally well with seafood. (Pictured here with some shrimp croquettes that we ordered to snack on.) Available via Herman Wines.
Cortém, Sauvignon Blanc/Viognier, Lisboa, Portugal (2017)
Fermented on its skins for ten days, Cortém’s orange blend is probably the most robust and full-bodied of my four picks, and it’s also by far the oldest. That gives it a complexity and depth of flavour that go further than the floral aromas and stone fruit flavours, which lend it particularly well to food pairing. Available via Vinhos Cortém.
Where to buy wine online
I had a quick look through my subscriber list the other day to see where you’re all based. The answer was everywhere! That means the links I’ve included to the wines above might be useful – or they might very much not be. To help out, here’s a list of reliable wine websites in several different countries that should stock some orange wines:
Decántalo – international (throughout Europe, North America, Australia and some Asian countries)
Colaris – Benelux countries
8Wines – Europe-wide
Majestic – UK
Virgin Wines – UK
Naked Wines – UK and US
Total Wine – US
One Stop Wine Shop – US
Wine on Sale – US
Note that Decántalo is currently (16-22 Sept) offering discounts of up to 15% in Denmark, Germany, UK, Italy and France!