Orange wine part I – It’s your time to shine, orange wine

The colour of wine in 2016 is orange.

It’s your time to shine, orange wine

What are the very first signs of Spring? For a Finnish wine lover they are the increasing amount of day light that makes snow glitter, and wine bloggers’ predictions of upcoming wine trends. My contribution to that discussion can be condensed into two words: orange wine.

Orange wine is making its way forward as a part of natural wine movement. Despite of the criticism regarding their durability, natural wine, similar to all natural and organic in the food and beverage world, is very hip at the moment. During the recent years, orange wine has increasingly attracted the interest of dedicated wine lovers. Finland, however, still remains virtually untouched by this style’s influence. My prediction is that in 2016 orange wine arrives in Finland, and becomes more mainstream among wine lovers elsewhere.

This spring, Divine Wine blog celebrates orange wine with a series of stories. I will start with introducing you to the basics of orange wine. Subsequently, a number of divine orange wines will be reviewed and a wine bar specializing in orange wine recommended. But most importantly, we will continue our vinous journey in the border region of Italy, Slovenia and Croatia, the current heartland of orange wine in Europe. There, I’ll take you to visit an iconic orange wine producer, Gravner. What an excitingly orange spring, dear vinous friends! This time I’ll review the basics of orange wine, and next time we’ll progress into more historic layers to understand the phenomenon.

What is orange wine?

The term ”orange wine”, was created by David Harvey, a wine importer, who used to work at Cornelissen in Sicily, Italy. Cornelissen made orange wine but a proper descriptor for the style was lacking. Not really intending to create a new concept, Harvey just described the product as orange wine. Incidentally, however, the wine loving audience found this term handy, and orange wine has remained in wine vocabulary ever since. Still, it should be noted that orange wine is not an official wine term. This is because orange wine is technically white wine.

So, what makes a white wine orange wine? The answer lies in the orange winemaking technique, which is very similar to red winemaking. During making an ordinary white wine, the juice is pressed out of the grapes, and the grape skins and the seeds are discarded right away. Red wine making is quite different, as red grapes are crushed to release the juice but the skins and the seeds are left to macerate in contact with the grape juice created. While this maceration, a.k.a. skin contact, continues, colour, tannin and flavour components are released from the skins and seeds to the juice/wine. How long this skin contact is allowed to continue depends on the grape variety and the style of wine aimed for. For example, very thick skinned grape varieties with abundant tannin should not be macerated for too long to avoid overtly tannic, astringent and austere wine. Typically, the maceration time for red wine is around a couple of days.

Orange wine is made with prolonged skin contact (as red wine is) but of white grapes (as white wine is). Compared with red grapes, white grapes have substantially less colour, tannin and flavor components in their skins, hence orange wine producers may let the maceration continue for ten days, for months, even for years.

This kind of prolonged skin contact releases colour and tannin from the skins along with bitter components from the skins and especially the seeds. The final colour may be anything from deep gold, via amber, to brown. Also, the structure of an orange wine differs profoundly from ordinary white’s structure due to the presence of tannin. Not all grape varieties are suitable for prolonged skin contact. Only a few grapes are able to give birth to balanced orange wines that are refreshingly acidic, yet tannic, and elegantly aromatic.

The characteristics of a variety, as well as the optimal ripeness of the grapes are emphasized by the long maceration time. Should the variety be very aromatic, there is a danger of aromas overwhelming the wine’s balance. If the grapes are too ripe, there simply isn’t enough acidity left to carry the weight of the tannin. Somewhat under-ripe grapes won’t work either: the bitter components released from the seeds as well as the skins will dominate the wine’s flavour, again throwing the wine out of balance. As a style, orange wine is not for the faint hearted. Producers undertaking this challenge need true skill and determination to accomplish a wine that is elegant. Natural wines have received criticism due to the unpredictability of their quality and durability.

Orange wine is not free of this criticism either, although tannin is a natural preservative, hence supporting the idea of making orange wine naturally. Although there are controversial orange wines of unpredictable quality in the market, the majority of orange wines I’ve tasted are a pure delight. The best producers of orange style make wine that competes in elegance and quality with the world’s greatest wines.

WSET3 news from Milan

Ready, set, go!

Fascinating aromas - tough work 

Studying for WSET3 at Milan Wine Academy (or Accademia Vino) was a genuine metaphor of the wine world: our study group spent the days tasting flights of wonderful wines - only to get buried in wine literature during the evenings. This intense week of tasting and studying in Milan brought together us, who had studied for months preparing for it. All this work culminated in examination on the final day, both in tasting and theory. Many of you, dear readers, might now sigh enviously picturing me in Milan. Don’t worry, though. Admittedly, I had fun, but the fun doesn’t begin to compare with the performance pressure. Let’s see. 1. Blind tasting exam - panic. 2. Theory exam – panic. 3. Very short time allocated for the theory exam - panic! 4. The difficulty of the questions in the theory exam - panic, indeed!! 5. Added bonus panic: all my fellow course mates were either winemakers or sommeliers by profession. Is short, I panicked.

Don’t get me wrong! Milan was exciting, beautiful, delicious and surprisingly laid back for a financial capital. I spent plenty of time in awe in front of Dolce&Gabbana store – but only after the final exam. Before the exam the only sightseeing I enjoyed was from my hotel room balcony while I spent my evenings studying, studying and studying.

My only sightseeing until the exam.

  

Luckily all the study pressure wasn’t in vain, as indicated earlier in December by the winebloggers’ blind tasting challenge, where I managed to pick up the Syrah/Shiraz from Chile. So, fortunately some information stuck to my cortex, which was entirely thanks to the outstanding faculty of Accademia Vino. First, AlessandraFedi. Her bubbly personality and interactive lecturing style ensured that her themes, including her area of special expertise, Chilean wine, were unforgettable to us. Second, Marina Olwen Fogarty. Being half British, half Italian, she offered us the best of both worlds teaching-wise: there aren’t many that are able to combine winemaker’s understanding to an extremely clearly articulated academic style of communication. And finally, Flavio. Flavio Grassi is the director of the Milan Wine Academy, a true Milanese gentleman who has spent a great part of his life in Anglo-Saxon culture environment. Entertaining, sharp and clear, Flavio teaches difficult wine concepts with the kind of relaxed ease and clarity that I’ve never come across before, in wine studies or any other studies for that matter. 

WSET3 student rinses and dries tasting glasses again and again.

 

During the WSET3 training we tasted roughly 100 wines and studied for hundreds of hours. The course covered the essential wine regions of the world, and in addition, some less known, upcoming wine producing countries such as Uruguay and Canada. Understanding wine regions was only one part of the advanced curriculum of WSET3, which also looked at all core aspects of wine production and evaluation including winemaking, grape varieties, natural hazards, vineyard management, the determinates of wine quality and style, wine aromas, and – most crucially, the systematic approach of tasting wine. This technique enables the taster to evaluate a wine in terms of quality, identity, aging potential and price point by gathering systematic information of the particular wine through sensing its appearance, nose, palate and finish. This approach to wine tasting was what particularly attracted me to undertaking WSET3. 

Now, when the results of the exams have come in, I guess it is safe to say that I’m quite pleased with the skillset I manage to acquire. In spite of all that panicking I was able to pass both the tasting and theory exams with distinction. Phew! Now I can breathe again. These news require breathing in some champagne aromas… Cin cin, dear wine lovers, and Happy New Year to you all!