Orange wine

Skin-contact wine before clarification and stabilization

Orange wine, also known as skin-contact white wine, skin-fermented white wine, or amber wine,[1] is a type of wine made from white wine grapes where the grape skins are not removed, as in typical white wine production, and stay in contact with the juice for days or even months.[2] This contrasts with conventional white wine production, which involves crushing the grapes and quickly moving the juice off the skins into the fermentation vessel. The skins contain color pigment, phenols and tannins that would normally be considered undesirable for white wines, while for red wines skin contact and maceration is a vital part of the winemaking process that gives red wine its color, flavor, and texture.[3]

International Organization for Vine and Wine (OIV) describes orange/amber wine as "White wine with maceration" and prescribes the minimum duration of the maceration phase to be 1 month.

  1. ^ Lorteau, Steve (2018-10-02). "A comparative legal analysis of skin-contact wine definitions in Ontario and South Africa". Journal of Wine Research. 29 (4): 265–277. doi:10.1080/09571264.2018.1532881. ISSN 0957-1264. S2CID 104755457.[1]
  2. ^ Miquel Hudin & Daria Kholodolina (2017), Georgia: A guide to the cradle of wine, Vinologue, p. 300, ISBN 978-1941598054
  3. ^ "Orange Wine". US Natural Wine. 2021-12-20.