It's always wine o'clock!
Orange wine
Up until recently, the modern wine scene has consisted of three major
colour categories: red, white, and rosé. However, side-by-side with the
natural winemaking revolution, we are seeing a climbing category of
wines that are different variations of orange hues, with some being
labelled “Orange Wine”. This low-intervention (and
often natural) style of wine has been around for thousands of years,
starting in Georgia, and was even popular up until the 1950s and ‘60s in
Italy, until the demand for fresh white wines took over. Orange wine has
become new again in the past decade, especially in North America.
Orange wine is NOT made with oranges, but white grapes that are left in
contact with the skins from anywhere from a few days to several months.
It is not always labelled as orange wine, but can be known as
‘Skin Contact’, ‘Skin Fermented White’, or ‘Amber’,
and sometimes has no reference on the label at all! As with all wine,
different countries around the globe have different definitions of
exactly what orange wine is and how it is to be labelled. Canada, for
example, has VQA regulations in place in Ontario that state orange wine
must be labelled Skin Fermented White, but on the other side of the
country in British Columbia, regulations have not yet defined the term
orange wine, so it is allowed on the label whether winemakers use skin
fermentation or just skin contact alone.