What is Orange Wine? A Guide to Amber Wines

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Imagine a wine that glows like a sunset in your glass. It smells like dried apricots, tea leaves, and wild honey. When you taste it, it has the grip of a red wine but the refreshing zip of a white. It isn’t made from oranges. It isn’t a cocktail. It is the oldest style of wine in the world, yet for many, it is brand new.

This is orange wine.

In the world of wine, we usually think in two colors: red and white. (Rosé, of course, sits happily in the middle). But there is a fourth color. Some call it amber wine. Others call it skin-contact white wine. Whatever you call it, this drink is shaking up restaurants and dinner tables across the globe. It challenges what we think wine should taste like.

To understand orange wine is to understand the history of winemaking itself. It requires us to look back 8,000 years to the Caucasus Mountains. It requires us to unlearn a few modern rules.

This guide will take you on a deep dive into the world of orange wine. We will explore how it is made, why it tastes the way it does, and why a technique from the Stone Age is suddenly the hottest trend in modern dining.

Part 1: What is Orange Wine?

Let’s clear up the biggest confusion first. Orange wine is not made from oranges. It is not a fruit wine. It has nothing to do with citrus fruit, other than perhaps sharing a color.

The Simple Definition

Orange wine is white wine made like red wine.

To understand that, we need to look at how regular wines are made:

White Wine: You take white grapes, crush them, and immediately press the juice away from the skins and seeds. You ferment only the juice. The skins are thrown away. This keeps the wine clear, crisp, and fruity.
Red Wine: You take red grapes and crush them. You leave the juice to sit with the skins, seeds, and stems. This is called maceration. The skins give the wine its red color. They also add tannins—that dry, sandpaper feeling you get on your tongue and gums.
Orange Wine: You take white grapes. Instead of pressing the juice away, you treat them like red grapes. You let the juice sit with the white grape skins and seeds for days, weeks, or even months.

Why the Color Changes

When white grape juice sits with the skins, it pulls out pigments. White grape skins aren’t actually white; they are yellow, green, golden, or sometimes pinkish-gray.

As the juice soaks, it extracts color. It turns from pale yellow to deep gold, then to copper, and finally to a rich amber or orange hue. The longer the juice touches the skins, the deeper the color becomes.

But the skins offer more than just color. They add flavor compounds called phenols. They add tannins. They add weight. This is why orange wine tastes bigger and bolder than standard white wine. It has the structure of a red wine, but the aromatics of a white wine.

Part 2: The Ancient Roots (8,000 Years of History)

While you might see orange wine on a hipster wine list in Brooklyn or London today, it is not a fad. It is the original wine.

The Cradle of Wine: Georgia

The story begins in the Republic of Georgia, a small country at the intersection of Europe and Asia. Archeologists have found evidence of winemaking here dating back 8,000 years.

In ancient Georgia, they didn’t have stainless steel tanks or electricity. They used the earth.

The Georgians developed a vessel called a Qvevri (pronounced kwev-ree). These are massive, egg-shaped clay pots lined with beeswax. Some are tall enough for a person to stand inside.

The Traditional Process:

Harvest the grapes (traditionally indigenous varieties like Rkatsiteli or Kisi).
Crush the grapes and dump everything—juice, skins, stems, and seeds—into the Qvevri.
Bury the Qvevri underground. This keeps the temperature cool and stable naturally.
Seal it with clay and leave it alone.
Open it months later (often in spring) to find clear, amber-colored wine.

The Georgians never stopped making wine this way. While the rest of the world moved to industrial machines and clear white wines, Georgian families kept their Qvevris buried in their garden cellars, called marani. They don’t call it “orange wine.” They call it Amber Wine.

The Modern Gap

For centuries, Western Europe forgot about this style. In France, Italy, and Spain, winemaking became about purity and control. “Clean” wine was the goal. White wine became synonymous with pale, clear, shelf-stable liquid.

Skin contact for white grapes was considered a flaw. It was something to avoid. If your white wine turned brown or orange, it meant it had spoiled. Or so they thought.

Part 3: The Renaissance (How it Came Back)

If Georgia is the birthplace, the border between Italy and Slovenia is the nursery where orange wine was reborn for the modern world.

The Visionary: Josko Gravner

In the 1990s, a winemaker named Josko Gravner was working in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. He was a superstar. He made crisp, modern white wines that won awards. He had all the fancy technology.

But Gravner was unhappy. He felt his wines had no soul. He felt technology was stripping the character away from the grapes.

He took a trip to California and was shocked by how chemical-heavy the winemaking industry had become. He then traveled to Georgia. He saw the Qvevris. He tasted the Amber wines. It was a revelation.

Gravner went home and did something crazy. He sold his stainless steel tanks. He bought giant clay amphorae from Georgia. He started leaving his Ribolla Gialla grapes on their skins for months.

Everyone thought he had lost his mind. Critics said the wine was oxidized. They said it was ruined. But when people truly tasted it, they found something profound. It was complex, alive, and completely different. Other winemakers in the region, like Stanko Radikon, joined him.

The Term “Orange Wine”

Interestingly, neither the Georgians nor the Italians coined the term “orange wine.” It was actually a British wine importer named David Harvey in 2004. He needed a name for this category that wasn’t red, white, or rosé. The name stuck, despite some winemakers disliking it (many prefer “skin-contact”).

Part 4: How It Tastes (The Sensory Experience)

If you hand a glass of orange wine to someone expecting a Pinot Grigio, they might be shocked. It requires a reset of your palate.

The Flavor Spectrum

Because “skin contact” is a technique, not a specific grape, the flavors can vary wildly. However, most share common threads:

Dried Fruits: Instead of fresh lemon, think dried orange peel, dried apricots, or bruised apples.
Nutty and Savory: Notes of hazelnut, almond, walnut, and sourdough yeast are common.
Herbal and Floral: Dried tea leaves, chamomile, juniper, and hay.
The “Funk”: Many orange wines have a wild, earthy quality. You might smell damp forest floor or beeswax.

The Texture (Tannins)

This is the biggest surprise. When you sip white wine, you expect it to slide right down. Orange wine has grip.

Because of the tannins from the skins and seeds, orange wine creates a drying sensation in your mouth, similar to a red wine or strong black tea. This texture adds “body” or weight to the wine. It feels fuller than a standard white.

Oxidation vs. Oxidative

This is a technical point, but an important one.

Oxidized means a wine is ruined. It tastes flat, like vinegar or old cardboard.
Oxidative is a style choice. It means the wine was exposed to a little bit of air during winemaking (often because clay pots breathe more than steel tanks).

Orange wines are often oxidative. This controlled exposure to air gives them their nutty, savory, complex character. It’s a feature, not a bug.

Part 5: Winemaking Variances (It’s Not All the Same)

Not all orange wines are created equal. The intensity depends on three main levers the winemaker pulls.

1. Time on Skins

This is the biggest factor.

24 Hours to 1 Week: “Baby” orange wine. The color might be golden or light copper. The flavor is fresh with just a hint of grip. Good for beginners.
1 Month: A solid orange color. Distinct tannins. Savory flavors start to overtake the fresh fruit.
6 Months+: Deep amber. Intense tannins. Very savory, complex, and wild. This is the hardcore traditional style.

2. The Vessel

Stainless Steel: Keeps the fruit flavors fresher. The wine will be cleaner and sharper.
Oak Barrels: Adds vanilla and spice notes, plus allows some air exchange for a softer feel.
Clay/Amphora (Qvevri): The most traditional. Adds an earthy, mineral quality and allows the wine to breathe significantly.

3. The Grape

Aromatic grapes like Gewürztraminer or Muscat make orange wines that smell like perfume and flowers. Neutral grapes like Pinot Grigio (yes, Pinot Grigio is a red-skinned grape!) make copper-colored wines that are savory and mineral-driven.

Part 6: How to Serve and Drink It

Treating orange wine like standard white wine is a mistake. If you serve it ice-cold, you will kill the flavor.

Temperature

Serve orange wine cool, not cold.

Target: 55°F – 60°F (12°C – 15°C).
The Rule of Thumb: Take it out of the fridge 20–30 minutes before you drink it. If it’s too cold, you won’t taste the complex dried fruit and nut aromas. You’ll only feel the bitterness of the tannins.

Glassware

You don’t need a special glass. A standard large white wine glass works well. However, because these wines are aromatic, a large-bowled glass (like you would use for a Pinot Noir) can be fantastic to let the aromas open up.

Decanting

Yes, you can decant orange wine! Especially if it is a “living” wine with some sediment (cloudiness) at the bottom, or if it smells a little “closed” or reductive (like a struck match) when you first open it. Giving it 30 minutes of air can work wonders.

Part 7: The Food Pairing Superpower

This is where orange wine truly shines. It is the “Swiss Army Knife” of food pairing.

Sommeliers love orange wine because it solves problems. There are certain foods that kill white wine and fight with red wine. Orange wine bridges the gap.

The Hard-to-Pair Foods

Fermented Foods: Kimchi, sauerkraut, and pickled vegetables are tough for most wines. The acidity and savory notes of orange wine match them perfectly.
Spicy Food: Indian curries, Thai dishes, and Sichuan cuisine often overwhelm delicate whites and make red wines taste alcoholic and hot. Orange wine has the bold flavor to stand up to the spice, and the fruitiness to cool the palate.
Vegetables: Asparagus and artichokes contain compounds that make wine taste sweet or metallic. Orange wine handles them with ease.

Classic Pairings

The Georgian Table: In Georgia, they drink amber wine with everything—grilled meats, walnut pastes, cheese breads (Khachapuri), and stews. It handles heavy meat dishes surprisingly well because of the tannins.
Charcuterie and Cheese: A platter of aged hard cheeses (like Comté or Pecorino) and salty cured meats is heaven with orange wine.
Mediterranean: Hummus, baba ganoush, olives, and lamb kebabs.

Part 8: Myths, Misconceptions, and “Natural” Wine

Orange wine is often lumped in with the “Natural Wine” movement. While they are friends, they are not the same thing.

The Difference

Orange Wine: A style of winemaking (skin contact).
Natural Wine: A philosophy of farming and winemaking (organic grapes, native yeast, no additives, little to no sulfites).

Most orange wines happen to be natural wines. The producers interested in ancient techniques are usually the same ones interested in organic farming and low-intervention methods. However, you can make a conventional orange wine using commercial yeast and additives. You can also make a white natural wine that has zero skin contact.

“It Tastes Like Cider”

You will hear this often. Some orange wines, especially those made without added sulfites, can have a cidery, bruised-apple taste. This comes from oxidation. Some people love it; some hate it. If you dislike this, look for “cleaner” styles from producers who use temperature control and stainless steel.

“It’s Just Faulty Wine”

Critics sometimes dismiss orange wine as lazy winemaking full of vinegar (volatile acidity) or barnyard smells (brettanomyces). While bad orange wine certainly exists, good orange wine is clean, precise, and intentional. The complex flavors are not flaws; they are the expression of the grape skin.

Part 9: A Buying Guide for Beginners

Ready to try a bottle? Walking into a wine shop can be intimidating. Here is how to navigate the shelf.

Regions to Look For

Georgia: The original. Look for the word “Qvevri” on the label. Varietals: Rkatsiteli, Kisi, Mtsvane. Style: Deep, tannic, earthy.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Italy) / Brda (Slovenia): The modern masters. Look for producers like Gravner, Radikon, or Princic. Style: Intense, elegant, savory, expensive.
Sicily: Volcanic soils produce distinct orange wines. Look for the grape Catarratto or Zibibbo. Style: Salty, aromatic, citrusy.
USA & Australia: New World producers are experimenting wildly. They often list the grape and “Skin Contact” on the label. Style: Often lighter, fruitier, and more approachable for beginners.

Key Words on Labels

Since “Orange Wine” isn’t an official legal term in many places, look for these clues:

Skin-Contact
Skin-Macerated
Amber
Ramato: This is a specific Italian style of skin-contact Pinot Grigio (copper colored).
Amphora / Qvevri

Part 10: The Future of Orange Wine

Is orange wine just a trend? A blip on the radar?

Unlikely. While the “hype” might settle down, the category has established itself firmly. It offers a spectrum of flavors that red and white wines simply cannot provide.

We are seeing a shift. At first, orange wine was extreme—cloudy, super-tannic, and aggressive. Now, winemakers are refining the style. We are seeing elegant, subtle orange wines that are clean and precise. We are seeing “starter” orange wines that have just a few days of skin contact to add a nice glow and texture without overwhelming the drinker.

It is also influencing mainstream winemaking. Even commercial wineries are starting to experiment with small amounts of skin contact to give their white wines more texture and shelf life.

Conclusion

Orange wine is a reminder that newer isn’t always better. Sometimes, the oldest way is the best way.

By simply leaving the skins in the tank, winemakers unlock a hidden dimension of the grape. They create a drink that bridges the gap between fresh and heavy, between fruit and earth.

Whether you enjoy a light, golden skin-contact Pinot Grigio on a patio, or a deep, brooding Georgian amber wine by a fireplace, you are drinking history. You are tasting the grape exactly as nature intended, with nothing taken away.

So next time you look at a wine list, look past the red and white sections. Ask for something amber. You might just find your new favorite color.

Glossary of Terms

Maceration: The process of soaking crushed grapes with their skins and seeds.
Tannins: Compounds found in grape skins/seeds that cause a drying sensation in the mouth.
Qvevri: Large beeswax-lined clay vessels used in Georgian winemaking, buried underground.
Amphora: A general term for clay vessels used for aging wine.
Phenolics: Chemical compounds affecting the taste, color, and mouthfeel of wine (tannins are a type of phenol).
Natural Wine: Wine made with minimal human intervention, usually organic and without additives.
Sulfites: Compounds (naturally occurring or added) that preserve wine and prevent oxidation. Orange wines often have very low sulfites.

Orange Wine: Ancient Techniques for Modern Palates