Have you been keeping up with wine trends as of late?  You might have noticed ‘Orange’ wines popping up more and more at your favorite restaurants and on our shelves. What gives?  While orange wines may seem to be currently trending they’ve actually had quite a long history dating back thousands of years to the Eurasian country of Georgia where they were fermented in large terra cotta vessels, buried underground, and unsealed in the springtime for large traditional feasts called “Supras.”  The feasts are traditionally led by a toastmaster (or “tamada” in Georgian) who is revered by the community for their great oratorical skills and ability to consume large amounts of alcohol (of course).

The new orange wines are being made to emulate this ancient and traditional style by keeping the juice of white grapes on their skins for an extended amount of time giving the wines more color and tannin. Some are aged in cement, oak, or stainless steel, and many new European orange wines are using amphora or qvevri (pictured). Besides being interesting and nerdy wines, leaving the skin contact on whites give the wines more aging potential, a wider array of food pairing options, and great complexity. We have orange wines from Italy, Georgia, Spain, France, Oregon, and California! Ask about them next time you’re in and we’ll point them out!