ORANGE REALLY IS THE NEW ROSÉ

Orange wine — created from a maceration of white grape skins and juice during fermentation — has eclipsed the rosé frenzy that’s dominated oenological trends in the U.S. over the past decade. “Orange wine has become a parody of itself in terms of the demand for it,” says Domaine LA wine shop owner and former film exec Jill Bernheimer. For years, “you couldn’t have a rosé pale enough to suit people’s tastes, now they want their wines to be as orange as possible.” Taste palettes are changing, says André Hueston Mack, the winemaker behind Oregon’s Maison Noir Wines. America’s fascination with more savory libations, such as kombucha and sour beers, also has cracked things open. Mack says orange wines are what “my generation of sommeliers brought to the table. ‘Orange’ was slang that sommeliers used on the floor, and that term carried over.”

Orange or amber winemaking has been around for millennia. “It’s an old [Georgian] style that’s been pushed to the forefront,” explains Taylor Grant of Valle de Guadalupe’s Tresomm winery, who worked at Paradigm before entering the wine biz. The demand has spawned “massive amounts of orange wines from Italy to Chile,” she says. “The hues can vary greatly. It depends on the grape itself, and how long they stay on the skins.” For instance, a pinot gris-based type from Italy yields a coppery tint dubbed “ramato.” A version is offered by Mary J. Blige, who worked with Friulian winemaker Marco Fantinel to create her 2019 Sun Goddess Pinot Grigio Ramato ($19, wallywine.com).

Top: André Hueston Mack. Above from left: Two orange standouts from California are Solminer Skin Fermented Grüner Veltliner 2020 ($35, solminer.com) and Emme Wines’ “tell your sister i say hi” Muscat Vert 2020 ($34, domainela.com ).