Wine · Medium strength
Orange Wine
White grapes, red methods, amber results. The natural-wine bar's handshake.
How to order it: Skin-contact whites from Georgia (the country) or Friuli. Tannic, wild, alive.
Flavor profile
The proper serve
- Chill to 50–55°F
- White glass, red expectations
- Decant if it's young and wild
- Pairs: hard cheese, curry, charcuterie
- Expect tannin from a white
The story
The newest-seeming wine on the list is plausibly the oldest. In Georgia, white grapes have been fermented on their skins in buried clay qvevri for millennia — the country claims roughly eight thousand vintages of continuous practice, and archaeology largely backs the boast. The modern revival began in the 1990s on the Italian-Slovenian border, where Friulian winemakers Joško Gravner and Stanko Radikon abandoned stainless steel for skin contact and amphorae. The term 'orange wine' itself is generally credited to a British importer in the mid-2000s. Tannic, amber, faintly wild, it became the natural-wine movement's calling card — proof that white grapes, treated like reds, produce something that predates the entire distinction.
Adjacent pours