Lockdown ruining your weekend plans? Why not join us for a virtual Zoom tasting this Saturday at 7pm! We taste through all these wines, learn about their history and context and discuss your thoughts on them. It’s like an adult drinking game that’s fun and educational!

For this week’s feature and Zoom tasting, we’re diving into a frequently requested topic: Orange Wine. Over the last several years “orange wine” has become increasingly popular, particularly within the natural wine scene. There are exceptions, but for the most part orange wine is made by the smaller natural/organic/biodynamic wineries that focus on edgier, raw styles of wine. These types of wineries don’t produce huge volumes overall, so their orange wine production is fairly allocated, gets mostly bought by restaurants and otherwise hard to find. The orange genre overall gets a lot of hype on instagram and in mainstream foodie publications like Bon Appetit or The New York Times, and all this publicity draws people’s curiosity but there are none regularly available at the LCBO. So I get countless customers curious to try out this orange wine they keep hearing about but unfortunately our entirely allocations are usually pre-sold before they even arrive in Ontario. But this week we have 4 really great orange wines for the feature and Zoom!

But before we dive in, because I always get so many questions about this, so here’s a little primer if you’re newer to orange wine:

1) It is not made from oranges, it doesn’t have any orange flavour added, nor anything to do with oranges (the fruit). It is an ancient style of white wine making, when white wines were made the same way red wines were, fermented with its skins in contact with the juice. All grape juice is white to begin with, a red wine gets its red colour and tannins from the skins hanging out in the vats of juice during fermentation after its crushed. You can make white wine from red grapes, you just need to press the juice off right away from the skins into a separate vat and ferment the fresh white juice on its own. If you leave those red skins in the juice for a little bit (a matter of hours) you’ll get a rosé. And if you fully ferment the juice with the red skins in it (usually a couple weeks) you have red wine. And if you leave white grape skins in contact with the juice, it will tint orange with increasing intensity depending on how many days contact. Colour, tannin, and flavour are what we we get from the grape skins. Tannin is a natural preservative in red wine, and back in the day before advances in winemaking with filtration and sulphate additions when wine needed to preserve itself as much as possible on its own, so white wine was made like red wine with skin contact during fermentation. And this is why many orange wines are labelled as “Skin Contact” or “Skin Fermented” instead of expressly saying “Orange Wine” on the label to avoid confusion about oranges. It’s usually made from grape varieties that have a bit more pigmentation to them, and some are technically considered grey rather than white, like Pinot Gris for example. But Gewurztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc, Vermentino, Macabeau, Malvasia, Trebbiano, Ribolla Giallao, and even Vidal are popular as well.

2) Most orange wines are a little funky. Some drink a little more like an edgy natural cider than classic wine. If you like super clean, fruity, polished, pretty wines, most orange wines might not be for you. There’s an earthy, savoury, and sometimes rustic or even gritty character to many of them. There are of course exceptions to that, but the majority orange wines you see in the market come from smaller natural wineries who prefer the raw/unfined/unfiltered style of wine that gives a richer texture and leaves the wine a little hazy, zippy, and earthy. And because they’ve been fermenting on the skins, they extract some tannin as well, making them drink a little more like a red wine…So expect light to medium tannins on most orange wines as well.

3) Also because of the nature of their production, they aren’t cheap. There’s no such thing as a $15 orange wine in Ontario. If you can find one under $20 it’s a very rare steal, but I’d wonder if it’s any good? Most seem to be at least $25 - $30 per bottle to start, if not $40 to $50+. And unless it’s something random is coming through a special release at Vintages, I don’t think you’d find one at the LCBO either. Suffice it to say, they’re a bit elusive.

We’ll discuss all this and more on Saturday’s virtual Zoom tasting at 7pm. If you want to join, just pick up all or any of the bottles below and send me an email for Zoom link. It will be emailed out on Saturday afternoon ahead of the tasting.

TAWSE WINERY, SKIN FERMENTED PINOT GRIS, 2019
$29 per bottle at Byward Wine Market and Pan Chancho, $26.95 x12 from Lifford

Tawse is housed in a beautiful gravity flow winery outside of Beamsville in Niagara, and they were Canada’s second certified organic and biodynamic winery back in the mid 2000’s. They make a range of outstanding wines in Niagara as naturally as possible. But winemaker Paul Pender is not a big fan of gritty, funky wines. Even as one of Canada’s biodynamic pioneers, he strives for clean, precise wines so much so that even his zero-sulphate, unfiltered wines remain clean cut and super refined. This is something Tawse does really well: making natural/biodynamic wines that are clean, precise, and pretty.

And that clean cut classiness is on full display in their 2020 Skin Fermented Pinot Gris. I know I had just said that most orange wines aren’t as clean and precise, but leave it to Paul Pender to make a great one! This is his first vintage of this wine and he’s given it a very light filtration which gives a clear translucence the beautiful copper orange colour. Even though orange wines have no actual oranges in their production, they often do have some orange notes in them, and there’s interesting hints of orange blossom, mandarins, earth and raisins in this one. The savoury, rich mid-palate is supported by medium tannins and nice fresh acidity. This could go equally well with grilled seafood, pork, salads, or just chilled on its own…even room temp this wine is fantastic. It’s also a really great price, at $29 I doubt you can find a better quality orange for any less than that, and this is local too! This wine would easily cost $45 if it were imported from anywhere else.

Secateurs Riviera, finding the right shade of orange.

BADENHORST, ‘SECATEURS’ RIVIERA | SWARTLAND, SOUTH AFRICA
$31 per bottle at Byward Wine Market and Pan Chancho, Sold Out at Lifford :(

Adi Badenhorst was one of the pioneers of the Swartland Revolution of the 2000’s where a number of young winemakers moved to Swartland, which was historically seen as a cheap or lower quality region as compared to famous regions like Stellenbosch. Swartland real estate was less expensive and less restrictive on winemaking styles. You could more or less do whatever you wanted in Swartland, and at a fraction of the cost. This is where you started to see all the new, young, cool wineries pop up. But just because it had been seen as lesser in terms of historic production doesn’t meant it was any lesser a terroir…and there were all sorts of old vine varieties already planted: Chenin Blanc, Picpoul, Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Semillon, Muscat, Riesling, Fernao Pires, Palomino, Tinta Barocca, Cinsault, Pinotage, etc. Thus South Africa makes a re-introduction onto the world stage in a new context of funky, young, cool, natural and low intervention wines from their experimental movement in Swartland.

As one of the early people in this movement, Adi Badenhorst started A.A. Badenhorst Family Vineyards and produces a nice range of wines. He has a red and white wine called ‘Secateurs’ (the grape shears used for harvest) and later added an orange wine to that lineup called ‘Riviera’. It was something done exclusively for the SAQ in Quebec, but after a number of years of begging Adi for some, we finally got a small allocation for Ontario this year. This wine is mostly Chenin Blanc with a bit of Semillon, and it is fermented 2 weeks on its skins. Expect a complex structure that is all at once, edgy from the tannins, but waxy and almost dusty or ashy, and flavour profiles moving from apricots to spicy ginger. Super interesting wine.

Le Soula vineyards in the Fenouillédes: Terroir d’altitude

LE SOULA, ‘LA MACÉRATION’ | ROUSSILLON, FRANCE
$69 per bottle at Byward Wine Market and Pan Chancho, Sold Out at Lifford :(

Le Soula is an all-natural, biodynamic, off-grid winery perched high in the Fenouillédes, which are the foothills of the Pyrenees in southern France. Le Soula was born when famed natural winemaker Gerard Gauby brought a series of vineyards to the attention of his English importer Mark Walford. Gerard found some very old vineyards that had been relevant 50-100 years ago when vermouth production was incredibly fashionable and most of the grape growers in the area sold their grapes to the local distillery. If you’re a vermouth fan, you might have had Byrrh Vermouth, which is made in their local town. But since the decline in popularity of vermouth, those difficult to access vineyards high up in these hills lost relevance vs the rest of the wine scene that was exploding in Languedoc-Roussillon. Gauby saw an opportunity to purchase some old vineyards with the potential to make extremely elegant wine from that high up in altitude and sought partnership from his English importers. Mark loved the idea and in 2001 they had their first vintage of Le Soula.

Even though they are within the Roussillon, they give this wine a Vin de France designation because it goes significantly against the grain being a multi-vintage orange wine. This is their 19th lot of this wine and it blends a bit of each of the past 5 vintages back to 2014 that have been aging and gaining in complexity. It is a blend of 76% Vermentino and 24% Macabeu left on the skins for 15 days, from vines up to 52 years old from granite vineyards, hand harvested off the steep slopes of the Fenouillédes. There was only 430 cases made of this wine and we are currently sold out in Ontario. Byward Wine Market and Pan Chancho have the last bottles of this in Ontario. I consider this to be the Cadillac of orange wines and I’ve had several top sommelier clients say it’s the best they’ve ever had too…which helps justify the steeper price point. Le Soula has quite a detailed website, click here to check that out, or click here for their detailed tech sheet.

While I think that Le Soula is a top example of skin contact orange wines overall, it is meant to be a more raw, unfined, and unfiltered style. The colour is a copper-orange hue, but the unfiltered character gives it more of a hazy matte finish, or brushed copper colour in the glass. It has a rich minerality with stony and herbal notes of bruised orange, negroni, earth, and dried fruit. It is as elegant as it is raw, and that juxtaposition is one thing that makes this wine so interesting. This is a wine that you can drink now cold and crisp, or at room temperature like a red, or cellar for at least 5 years and pair it with a wide variety of seafood, lighter meats, charcuterie and cheeses. Don’t let these price points scare you. If you like skin contact wines, this is definitely one to try.

Can confirm, this is an excellent Cauliflower Tinga Taco pairing.

DOMAINE DU BOUCHOT, ‘ORANGE’ | LOIRE VALLEY, FRANCE
$75 per bottle at Byward Wine Market and Pan Chancho, or $67.99 x6 from Lifford

Domaine du Bouchot is famous in the natural wine world for being the first certified organic (2009) and natural wine in the region of Pouilly-Fumé, right across the river from it’s more famous neighbour Sancerre. Like Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé focuses almost exclusively on Sauvignon Blanc. In 2018 the domaine brought on Antoine Gouffier, a young winemaker who had grown up in the village but travelled the world working in wine and restaurants in New York, California, Argentina, Africa and the Middle East. He decided to return home and settled at Bouchot and brought with him new inspirations, like this excellent orange wine. They do not make any red wine at the estate, so this is meant to be their beefiest wine, and a pretty versatile food wine. I can attest that tonight’s Crispy Cauliflower Tinga Tacos were a great pairing!

For all the very raw-style natural wine fans out there, this is for you. Not only is it low intervention, organic/biodynamic, it is wild yeast fermented, then aged on it’s Sauvignon Blanc grape skins for 5 months without any added sulphates. This gives it a lovely oxidative flavour profile reminiscent of classic Jura whites with notes of dried herbs, sherry, yeast, toasted almonds, violets, bruised oranges, a nice hint of something gamey, and a lingering minerality. This does see some light fining and filtration, so it is clear, not hazy, but certainly carries the raw and rustic flavour profile that many orange wines have become famous for. This wine would be just excellent with a nice variety of cheese and charcuterie, or like the aforementioned tacos. Very, very impressed with this wine’s Ontario debut.

FOOD PAIRINGS:

If you’re joining us for the Zoom tasting and you’re looking for dinner pairing to go with the wines, I think a nice range of creamy to earthy cheeses and some nice charcuterie will do nicely across the board with all these wines, or even the taco recipe I linked earlier if you’re looking for something different. Beyond that Rachel from Pan Chancho has put together a few great suggested dinner pairings:

Lamb Chops w/ Roasted Cauliflower and Moroccan Chickpeas - Moroccan Chickpea Salad is a staple at Pan Chancho and is in our cookbook. You can order the book or she’s happy to share that recipe if anyone wants it (email me!)

Eggplant Parmesan with Roasted Vegetable Tomato Sauce and Pasta (for the vegetarians)

Indian Curry with Pilau Rice (saffron basmati with peas) - Not sure it matters what kind of curry it really is, but I think Madras or Kashmir, and Chana Masala for the vegetarians. This one is a great option for the Gluten Free among us.

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The Byward Wine Market is fully open for in person shopping, as well as online orders offering curbside pickup or local delivery within Ottawa. And just a reminder that the order deadline for Friday case deliveries is Wednesday before 9:00am. Reach out if you have any questions, and check out the archive of past FEATURES if you’re interested in other recommendations. Lastly, please feel free to forward this to anyone in Ontario who may be interested in home wine delivery and follow us on Instagram for daily wine content at @bywardwinemarket and @capitalwine.ottawa!