Everything You Need to Know About Orange Wine in 2025

Let’s start with the obvious: orange wine is not made from oranges. It’s not citrus-flavoured. It doesn’t taste like Aperol. And no, you cannot spritz it.

Glad we got that out of the way.

What orange wine actually is — and why it’s been appearing on every menu that also features natural wine, sourdough and someone named Luca who won’t stop talking about skin contact — is a little more complicated. And, depending on who you ask, either an ancient masterpiece or something that smells like your nan’s fruit bowl after a week in the Aga.

This is not a neutral guide. This is a rant, a celebration, and a cautionary tale — all rolled into one glass of slightly hazy, strangely tannic, often overpriced mystery juice. Welcome to orange wine. Prepare to pretend you like it.

So, What Actually Is Orange Wine?

Despite the name, orange wine has nothing to do with oranges and everything to do with technique. In short, it’s white wine made like red wine.

Ordinarily, white wine is made by pressing white grapes and immediately discarding the skins. Orange wine, on the other hand, is made by fermenting white grapes on their skins — sometimes for days, sometimes for months. This skin contact is what gives it its distinctive colour (which ranges from a gentle amber to something worryingly close to rust), and also its texture, tannin, and — how do we put this nicely — funk.

A Brief History of the World’s Oldest Trend

Orange wine is often marketed as a “new discovery”, when in fact it’s thousands of years old. The technique hails from Georgia (the country, not the place with peaches), where wine has been fermented in clay vessels called qvevri since the days when wearing sandals didn’t mean you were on holiday.

Georgians didn’t invent orange wine because it was trendy. They did it because it worked. Skin fermentation allowed wines to develop naturally without needing preservatives or modern filtration. It was rustic, real, and resilient — much like Georgian grandparents.

Today, orange wine has been adopted (read: gentrified) by natural wine producers, low-intervention winemakers, and the sort of sommeliers who say things like “slightly oxidative” with a knowing smile.

What Orange Wine Tastes Like (Be Honest With Yourself)

There is no single taste profile for orange wine. And that’s exactly the problem.

Depending on the grape, the producer, the region, and how long the skins were involved, orange wine can taste like:

• Overripe apricots left in a clay pot

• Cider that’s forgotten it isn’t beer

• Almonds, bruised apples, and salty peach stones

• Or in some cases, just regret

It can be floral or nutty, savoury or sour, mouth-dryingly tannic or oddly refreshing. One bottle’s a revelation. The next is a dare.

And don’t be fooled by sommeliers who say it’s “complex”. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s just badly made white wine in denial. Knowing the difference is what separates curiosity from commitment.

Why People Love It (and Why You Might Not)

There’s a lot to admire about orange wine. It’s natural, often organic, minimal intervention, low sulphur — basically all the buzzwords you can fit on a chalkboard in Shoreditch.

It pairs brilliantly with food, especially:

• Funky cheeses

• Fermented things (yes, kimchi counts)

• Charcuterie

• North African and Middle Eastern dishes

• That slightly-too-expensive vegetarian tasting menu you’ve been meaning to try

But here’s the honest bit: not everyone likes it. And that’s fine.

The people who really love orange wine tend to be:

• People who say “glou-glou” without irony

• Bartenders who talk about carbonic maceration over pints of Guinness

• Anyone who has said the phrase “this wine challenges me”

If you don’t fall into any of those categories, don’t worry. You’re not uncultured. You’re just honest.

Is Orange Wine Just Natural Wine?

Not quite, but the Venn diagram is almost a circle.

Many orange wines fall under the natural wine umbrella, because they’re made with:

• Native yeasts

• Little to no added sulphur

• No fining or filtering

• Old-school techniques that are either traditional or suspicious, depending on your level of trust

But not all orange wine is natural. And not all natural wine is orange. Some of it is cloudy red. Some of it is flat rosé. Some of it tastes like mushroom water and disappointment.

So yes, orange wine and natural wine are often seen holding hands at the back of the wine bar, but don’t confuse them entirely.

The Grape Varieties That Actually Work

Some grapes were made for orange wine. Others were not. Here’s a quick cheat sheet:

Great with skin contact:

• Ribolla Gialla – the OG grape from Friuli and Slovenia

• Malvasia – aromatic and floral, holds up well

• Rkatsiteli – the Georgian backbone, earthy and intense

• Trebbiano / Ugni Blanc – underwhelming as white, magic as orange

• Gewürztraminer – floral, spicy, fascinating when fermented with skins

Less successful (in most hands):

• Chardonnay – can work, but often turns into beige soup

• Sauvignon Blanc – too green, often goes sideways

• Pinot Grigio – possible, but needs a confident winemaker and a forgiving drinker

Serving Orange Wine (Or: How to Avoid Looking Clueless)

Orange wine is not your Friday fridge door Pinot Grigio.

To serve it properly:

• Chill lightly – not fridge-cold, more like “cellar cool” or “dining room in February”

• Use a glass with room – Burgundy bowl if possible, to let those… aromas develop

• Let it breathe – yes, really. Some orange wines need time to stop scowling at you

And for heaven’s sake, don’t judge it on the first sip. This is a style that changes in the glass. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes for science.

Is Orange Wine a Fad?

Here’s the thing — orange wine has been around longer than most wine styles currently considered “classic”. So it’s not a fad. But its recent cult following? That’s very much a trend.

The tattoos will fade. The natural wine bars will close. But orange wine will still be made in Georgian cellars, Sicilian farmhouses, and Slovenian garages long after we’ve moved on to the next thing (probably co-ferments with seaweed).

So is orange wine going anywhere? No. But is it always worth the hype? That depends on how much you like fermented ambiguity.

Final Thoughts on Orange Wine

Orange wine is one of those things that you’re either intrigued by, slightly intimidated by, or pretending to understand better than you do.

And that’s fine. It’s not meant to be easy. It’s not meant to be elegant. It’s meant to make you think twice — about how wine is made, how it tastes, and how often we confuse tradition with trend.

You don’t need to like it. You just need to know what it is. And if you do like it — congratulations, you now own a personality trait.

Either way, now when someone hands you a cloudy, copper-hued glass and says “this one’s really expressive”, you’ll know exactly what they mean.

Even if you still don’t finish the bottle.