Orange wine

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Orange wine, barrel tasting. In the background the winemaker with the hose to fill the glass.

An orange wine , also often Orange Wine in German usage , is a white wine that is made like a red wine . The white wine grapes are fermented with the berry skins (mash) and thus extract more tannins and color from the berry skins. Orange wine is characterized by a dark yellow to orange color and is usually a little cloudy. It is sometimes referred to as the fourth wine color alongside red, white and rosé .

An example of a traditional mash-fermented white wine is the Quevri wine from Georgia. Even if a small market niche is currently (2014) being served, there is an international trend in which winegrowers are gaining experience with orange. Different styles are created with traditional as well as modern methods - with the common characteristic of the maceration time.

The wines are extremely different in appearance, smell and taste and can take a lot of getting used to. Orange Wine is mainly offered at a higher price level. He is often in proximity to the conceptual nature of wine (natural wines set). Both types of wine are independent of each other, but compatible.

history

The most traditional orange type of wine is similar to Georgian wines produced in Quevris according to the Kakheti style, that is, through fermentation on the skins. Historically, winemaking in large clay pots buried in the ground is probably the oldest form of winemaking. This expansion by means of mash fermentation in Quevris can be traced back to antiquity in Georgia and is around 4500 to 5000 years old. Amphorae were the usual storage and transport vessels for liquids at the time. Quevris are specially made for wine production and storage. They were buried in the ground for static and climatic reasons. This type of winemaking has persisted in Georgia to this day and has been widespread again since the late 20th century, including in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, Austria and France.

In the northern white wine regions, too, a certain degree of maceration was not uncommon. For example, grape varieties with thicker skins, such as Sylvaner, have been ground in the vineyard for a very long time and often pressed during the next day to make work easier or due to delays in operations. Due to the shift in consumer tastes towards very young wines, starting after the Second World War, as well as the widespread motorization, this source of oxidation and uncontrolled fermentation in the sense of quality viticulture was excluded.

Today such techniques and others are consciously used again to create different styles in wine. In the meantime, very reductive orange wines are also produced in this way. The different characteristic features such as amphorae, mash fermentation ( orange wine ), natural wine and others are used both individually and combined.

Manufacturing

In the foreground an empty Quevri for the production of amphorae wine, buried in the ground in the background

The winemaking takes place by means of maceration (duration from a few weeks to months) in Quevri, barrels or tanks. Due to the long contact with the mash, the wine extracts more tannins and color, hence the dark yellow to orange color and the name. The wines produced in this way are oxidative and have a strong and complex texture , often cloudy and take a lot of getting used to. They have far more tannins than ordinary white wines. The varietal character of the grape varieties is partially lost in this winemaking process. After the must fermentation, pressing takes weeks or months. The extremely long maceration has a stronger influence on the character of the wine than the storage container.

This method has been used outside Georgia for a number of years. The process is used both traditionally and combined with modern winemaking methods .

Demarcation

Since there are still no legal regulations and mash-fermented white wines are not part of the tradition of most wine-growing regions, the term is occasionally mixed up with other trends in both marketing and criticism. The Georgian Quevri is both orange wine and amphora wine - but there are both orange wines without amphorae and amphorae wines that are not orange. The term orange wine is less established than amphora wine . The term orange wine is often used as an umbrella term for these wines.

Both production methods are also, but neither necessarily nor exclusively, used by winemakers who follow a so-called natural wine philosophy. Therefore, other viticulture methods that can be assigned to the spectrum of natural wine are occasionally ascribed to orange wine . Examples include not using sulfur. Use of wooden barrels or amphorae, spontaneous fermentation (renunciation of pure yeast), no temperature control of fermentation or oxidative expansion. However, these are neither necessary nor sole properties of an orange wine , but are further methods in addition to the must fermentation of the white wine.

This method of winemaking can lead to wine defects . However, the maceration time alone is just as uncritical for most grape varieties as it is for red wine. It is particularly important to have healthy reading material, again analogous to red wine. To ensure this, additional work and a good location are necessary in the vineyard. As a result, a price in the upper middle to upper segment has established itself for orange wine. A non-sulphurized tipped and oxidized white wine may resemble an orange wine in terms of color , but is simply a tipped and oxidized wine. Such wines are often used to criticize the new style. Wine faults are common (in the sense of a quality wine assessment). These wines from a small part of the producers, for whom chemistry and microbiology may be of little interest, possibly with questionable cellar hygiene, damage the reputation of the market segment. They are authentic wines with a local tradition. Companies also market themselves in such a way that they are very innovative, individual and experimental. With these very different wines you expand the diversity of the wine world. You want to explore a holistic understanding of nature that leads or should lead to a new lifestyle and wine style. You want to produce unmistakable unique wines.

Orange Wine is not to be confused with fruit wine made from oranges , for example the Spanish Tarongino . It is also to be distinguished from white wines flavored with orange peel.

Legal regulation

The terms orange wine, natural wine, natural wine, amphora wine or Quevri wine are not protected and clearly defined terms. The basis of production is still the wine legislation. To be designated as a quality wine, an official test number is required. Among other things, a varietal character of the wine is required, which orange wines cannot offer. Therefore, these wines were and are mainly marketed as wine or country wine . Analogous to cuvées (as a blend of grape varieties, necessarily without a character typical of the grape variety) and in view of the growing market segment, however, AP numbers have now been assigned in both Germany and Austria. Currently (2015) this is still limited to the less oxidatively developed styles.

See also

Web links

Commons : Orange Wine  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quevri Method declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site ( Memento from January 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ G. Binder, S. Ghvanidze: "Georgiens Weinwirtschaft im Umbruch", German Viticulture Yearbook 2012, Verlag Ulmer Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-8001-7678-6 , pp. 170-184.
  3. ↑ Hugh Johnson: Hugh Johnson's Wine History , Hallwag Verlag, 1989, p 14, ISBN 3-444-10370-0
  4. ↑ a b c The whole world of wine - No, Georgia is not the cradle of viticulture ... ( Memento from January 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ generation of the clay jars in Georgia
  6. ↑ Ancient Georgian traditional Qvevri wine-making method - Old traditional Georgian Qvevri wine-making method; with English subtitles
  7. ↑ [1] Orange Wines? Pro & Kontra , Der Winzer 12/2012, Österreichischer Agrarverlag, Vienna
  8. ↑ Bernd Weik: Alternative containers - other wine styles? In: German viticulture . November 29, 2013. No. 24, pp. 16-19.
  9. ↑ Egon J. Berger: My experience in the marketing of orange and natural wines , lecture at the symposium of the Association of Austrian Oenologists and Wine Researchers Orange & Co - new wines inspire consumers - do they inspire experts too ?, December 13, 2013, Competence Center Viticulture the higher federal college and federal office for viticulture and fruit growing , Klosterneuburg
  10. ↑ Regional Info Franconia, Orange - the fourth color of wine? , Der Deutsche Weinbau , 2/2014, p. 35.
  11. ↑ Robert Steidl: Amphorae Wines - yesterday and today , lecture at the symposium of the Association of Austrian Oenologists and Wine Researchers Orange & Co - new wines inspire consumers - do they inspire experts too ?, December 13, 2013, Competence Center Viticulture of the Higher Education Institute and Federal Office for Wine - and fruit growing , Klosterneuburg.
  12. ↑ Josef Glatt: Orange Wine - a new wine category? , Der Winzer No. 12/2013, Österreichischer Agrarverlag, Vienna, p. 5.
  13. ↑ Sepp Muster: My experiences with the production of biodynamic and orange wines , lecture at the symposium of the Association of Austrian Oenologists and Wine Researchers Orange & Co - new wines inspire consumers - do they inspire experts too ?, December 13, 2013, Competence Center Viticulture of the Higher Federal College and Federal Office for Viticulture and Fruit Growing , Klosterneuburg
  14. ↑ Reinhard Eder: Possibilities for saving sulphurous acid in winemaking , lecture at the symposium of the Association of Austrian Oenologists and Wine Researchers Orange & Co - new wines inspire consumers - do they inspire experts too ?, December 13, 2013, Competence Center Viticulture of the Higher Federal College and the Federal Office for Viticulture and Fruit Growing , Klosterneuburg.
  15. ↑ Nina Prasnikar: Study on the composition of commercial orange wines , lecture at the symposium of the Association of Austrian Oenologists and Wine Researchers Orange & Co - new wines inspire consumers - do they inspire experts too ?, December 13, 2013, Competence Center for Viticulture of the Higher Education Institute and Federal Office for viticulture and fruit growing , Klosterneuburg.
  16. ^ Andreas Essl: Natural wine - a dispute, Austrian Wine Academy. ( Memento from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive )