Wine Type: Orange

(2025) Early Azahar is an orange wine, made from Garnacha Blanco and Viura, and given 30 days of skin contact. It's insulting to call this very appealing wine 'beginner's orange wine', but what I mean is that it has fruit and juiciness to the fore, rather than the sometimes quite tannic and relatively fruitless more extreme examples. This has charm in abundance with sweet mandarin orange, jasmine and chamomile notes aromatically, and a juicy, fruity palate touching on peach. The skin contact traits are there, with the texture and with a little herbal, dry edge, but it finishes with balance and a high enjoyability quotient. Watch the video for more information.

(2025) This orange, or amber, wine is made with six months skin contact in traditional qvevri, from the indigenous Kisi variety planted on clay and stone soils. It's aromas are classic of this style, with butter, lemon, herbs and wax. It is dry, with stony and spicy flavours, the only glimpse of fruit being a suggestion of orange or lemon to the acidity, as this majors on texture and stony, lightly tannin grip. I enjoyed this.

(2025) Faouzi Issa is a modern winemaker in Lebanon, but has been mentored by some Georgian winemakers in the secrets of skin-contact 'orange' wines. Here he has used 150-year-old Merweh, fermented with wild yeast and spending four months with skins in Terracotta jars. The nose is attractively wild, with a yeasty and stony character but something quite floral/herbal too. It isn't nutty, but a touch of wheat plays against a hint of jasmine, so quite intriguing. In the mouth it is dry, the phenolics of tannin and melon rind dominating, but there is juiciness too. A squeeze of lime and a lick of salt is half-way to a Tequila shot here, but that's doing a thoroughly interesting and really quite delicious wine a disservice. Watch the video for more information and food-matching suggestions.

(2025) An example of an orange/amber wine, where white grapes - in this case Inzolia and Zibibbo - have been macerated to extract colour and other phenolic compounds from the grape skins. The colour is attractive and the Zibibbo, aka Muscat, marks the nose with a leafy and floral character. Herby and bright, it strikes the palate with fruit sweetness, but that is quickly subsumed by plenty of endive and chicory-like bitterness, Seville orange peel and grapefruit, a mineral tension from volcanic soils adding to the freshness and intensity. I'd say this style is not for everyone, but if you like the sound of it, it certainly offers something a little bit different. Watch the video for more information.

(2023) 100% Verdejo, this was made in a combination of clay amphora and large French oak vats, with regular pumping over to extract colour and phenolics from the skins. The usually punchy, elderflower aromatics of the Verdejo have been subsumed into much more herby, citrus aromas, a touch of kaolin and then clove-studded orange spice. In the mouth, again none of the tropical fruitiness one might expect from Verdejo, this is dry and savoury, invoking a hessian-like image, nutty and spicy into a super dry finish.

(2023) Leading light of the Languedoc, Jean-Claude Mas, is never predictable. His take on orange wine is in fact a blend of regular rosé and skin-contact orange wines, hence the name ‘Roseoarange’. Quite orthodox peach, lime and subtle orange notes, a touch of spice. Nice ripeness and fruit sweetness on the palate, racy, plenty of zesty lemon for a fresh, appetising finish.

(2023) From a biodynamic estate in the Languedoc where owner/winemaker Bertie Eden plies his trade, this is 100% Muscat made in contact with skins and pips. The Muscat aromatics are all present and correct here, florals and peach, but with an added dimension of something stony and herbal too. Sweet and ripe Muscat fruit on the palate, but the wine is bone dry, a hint of seeds and nuts with that pithy citrus acid that gives this some bite and good freshness.

(2023) Another organic certified orange wine, this made from 80% Inzolia and 20% Zibibbo (the latter is the Sicilian name for Muscat). It's the Zibibbo that dominates the aromatics here, with plenty of floral and orange (fruit) tones, something that reminds me of geranium leaf. In the mouth there's quite a powerful, intense character here, from both a nip of tannin and the spicy fruit concentration. That, plus pithy acids and an almost umami character makes for quite a decisive wine that's full of interest.

(2023) A blend of Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer and Welschriesling, this undergoes spontaneous fermentation and is made with minimal sulphur. Dazzling stuff: likey, juicy and floral, it's aromatically bright and buoyant. Is there a hint of the lightest spritz on the palate? Possibly it's just the sherbetty exuberance of the sliced Asian pear and citrus that flows through a dry, shimmering finish. A delight.

(2023) From leading organic producer in Chile, Emiliana, this is 100% Sauvignon Blanc from the Casablanca Valley. It was fermented in concrete tanks with punch downs, then aged in concrete eggs for five months with the skins. A very pleasing nose here. Arguably not as 'wild' as some orange wine examples, a clear and juicy orange and peach, just a little purple fig character and nuttiness too. In the mouth it once again walks a line between classic Sauvignon Blanc and something more unusual. Bittersweet Seville orange and fig again, the tannins adding a little grip and the acid tangy adding a lemon pith bite to the finish. Watch the video for more information.