No, orange wine isn’t made from oranges – and nine other myths about 8,000-year-old amber vino busted

After customers complained about the lack of orange flavour in Aldi’s new orange wine, Emma Henderson asks some of the UK’s top experts to separate fact from fiction around this new ‘old’ wine taking British supermarkets and wine bars by storm and how you should really be drinking it

Orange wine is nothing new – it’s been around for 8,000 years and hails from Georgia (Getty)

Is a wine list without an orange number worth its salt anymore?

You would be forgiven for thinking orange wine (also known as amber wine or skin contact) is something new to grace our glasses. It’s been steadily cropping up in restaurants and wine bars across the country over the past few years.

If you look a little deeper, though, you’ll find it’s anything but new.

Wine master Isabelle Legeron (France’s first female master of wine) points out in her book, Natural Wine, that in Renaissance artwork, wine is not actually white, as you may have first thought. Instead, look a little closer and you’ll see it’s a warm amber hue, which points to winemaking techniques that date back more than 8,000 years to Georgia, the world’s oldest wine region.

Back then, orange wine was left to ferment in huge clay pots, known as qvevri, which are buried underground – a method that’s seen a resurgence by savvy producers elsewhere today. Its winemaking history is vast, but Georgia’s wine export is still only really in its infancy, as is most people’s understanding of it in the UK.

So, how is this amber-like colour achieved? White grapes are pressed and then left in contact with the skins, stems and seeds to macerate (a winemaking term for soaking) for anywhere between a few days and six months, and even up to a year, which gives the juice colour, tannins and more flavour. This method is how red wine is made using red grapes, while white wine is made by pressing grapes, then quickly removing the juice from the skins so it’s not tainted in colour.

While you’ll find orange wine made with everything from chardonnay (the most popular grape variety grown in England) to pinot grigio grapes, rkatsiteli is the traditional Georgian grape used, as well as ribolla gialla from northeastern Italy and Slovenia. Not an orange in sight.

Now we’re firmly in the wine’s comeback era, it’s leaving its mark once more – only this time it’s a style that can both divide and delight.

In the same way that wispy pale pink rosés in wonderfully curvaceous bottles are the rubber stamp for the rosé of our time, today’s orange wines have quickly garnered their own identity too. Sometimes wearing a pressed crown cap, or a brightly coloured waxed lid over the cork, bottles with narrow necks feature artsy, whimsical and brightly coloured labels. They’re a world away from old-world wine labels adorned with classic chateaus and impossibly curly writing in red or gold (that’s how you know it’s trying to show off).

Confused TikTokers complaining about the lack of orange flavour in Aldi’s new wine (kirstyabarrett/adriansanderson22/TikTok)

Few labels actually reveal much about the contents, though, and this has led to some confusion over the ingredients. TikTokers recently began posting reviews of Aldi’s orange wine, with comments like “there’s a slight hint of oranges” and that they could “definitely taste the oranges”, while others said it’s “not worth the hype, not much orange flavour”. They’re not the only ones to make the mistake, as sommeliers are often asked if orange wine is made with the citrus fruit too.

It’s understandable, given how much gatekeeping there is in the world of wine. But the tide is turning, so if you’re keen to know what you’re buying, but don’t know what to look for, how to serve it and what to pair it with, we’ve asked some of the UK’s top sommeliers and wine experts to help to bust misconceptions and uncork the mystery.

And just to be clear, no actual oranges were hurt in the making of any amber vino.

Nine myths about orange wine, busted

I love traditional old-world – new and trendy orange wine is not for me

“An easy way to introduce new drinkers to orange wines is to think of them as more ‘hands-off’ styles of wine,” explains Sarah Williams, head of F&B at Firmdale Hotels. “It’s more about taking it back to how wine used to be made thousands of years ago, which is a more traditional way of fermenting white grape varieties that adds complexity and interest to the wine.”

For god’s sake, not another natural wine fad

Honey Spencer, co-owner of Sune restaurant in east London and author of Natural Wine, No Drama, says “It’s only really been a small blip of time that we haven’t been embracing natural wine”, roughly from the post-war era to about the 2010s. She attributes the recent rise in orange wine to the fact that we’re now exposed to a wider range of ingredients like “miso, fermented products like kefir and kombucha, and we’ve got our heads around these more esoteric tastes. So more and more people are willing to embrace those same taste properties in wine as well.” 

I’ve tried orange wine once and hated it – I’ll never try it again

“Not all orange wines are big, heavy, tannic and hard to get into,” says Mark Gurney, co-owner of Levan and Bar Levan in Peckham, south London, who curates the wine lists. “That’s a style that maybe was once prevalent, but now there’s so many different styles from so many different countries and grapes that you can get light and fruity, textural and herbaceous, big and heavy – there’s a whole range of things and there’s something for everyone,” he adds.

Saying you don’t like orange wine is like saying you don’t like cheese. But there’s definitely a cheese out there that would tickle your fancy

Angelo van Dyk, Wasted Wine Club

Charles Carron Brown, head sommelier at Aulis, a Simon Rogan restaurant, wants people to remember that sommeliers are there to help. “Everyone has good and bad experiences with wine, we’ve all been there, but the important thing is to give it a go. It comes down to the person who is serving to explain the wine in a way that’s manageable and easy to understand, and giving someone a taste. If they don’t like it then it’s up to me to find something else for them,” he adds.

Orange wine doesn’t pair well with food

“Orange wine is very gastronomical and it’s becoming a crowd-pleaser at restaurants,” explains Alessandra Tasca, head of wine for new opening OMA. “When tables are indecisive between drinking red and white wine I tend to suggest a nice structural orange, as it has the freshness of a white wine but the structure and tannins that some diners are looking for in a red wine. It brings people in to try something adventurous they’ve not tried before.”

Williams agrees. “Orange wine goes very well with curry and spicy food, which is normally difficult to pair because of the chilli heat. But because it’s got quite robust fruit flavours it can handle it. It’s also the perfect wine for a barbecue because it works with a little bit of charred meat thanks to its complexity of flavour, from tropical fruits to its nuttiness and bruised apple characteristics.”

Only Georgia can make true orange wine

There’s lots of rules associated with which wine can be produced where, such as Champagne. But not so with orange wine. “As orange wine is so heavily associated with Georgia and qvevri vessels, a lot of people have the misconception that all orange wine has to be made in qvevri, whereas it’s actually more about the wine being macerated that makes it orange wine,” says Angelo van Dyk, winemaker and founder of Wasted Wine Club.

“Serbia is a great producer of orange wine, though it’s a little bit more difficult to find, as are those from Hungary and Slovakia,” says Gurney. For entry-level wines, he advises looking for those from Italy, Austria and Spain as they produce slightly more approachable and affordable orange wines. “Especially the wines coming from central Spain like Castilla-La Mancha,” he adds.

Orange wine tastes better when drunk from a hipster wine glass

When it comes to glassware, “the bigger the better,” says Spencer. “Especially for anything with extended skin contact,” she adds. “The wine is ever-changing and then it’s put in a straightjacket of a bottle for goodness knows how long, shipped across countries, and the complexity that comes with that skin contact means it’s going to take some time to come out. So I’d decant the wine and then put it in as big a glass as you can. Light orange wines, which mimic white wine a little more, can be in smaller glasses though.”

Orange wine is too funky for me

“Not all orange wine is funky. A lot of people say ‘I don’t like orange wine’, but saying you don’t like orange wine is like saying you don’t like cheese. But there’s definitely a cheese out there that would tickle your fancy,” says Van Dyk. However, he adds that orange wines go really well with cheese, especially washed rind cheeses which usually have bigger flavours, which the orange wines can match.

It was only popular during the pandemic – surely its popularity will die off

“During the lockdown, lots of people shopped for wine online. So where a nice bottle of orange wine might be £40 in a restaurant, in a shop it could be anything from £8,” explains Clément Cousin, sommelier at Bavette Bistro near Leeds. This meant people were happier to try things at home and experiment, without spending a lot of money only to find they didn’t like it. “After that, a lot of people had tried orange wine and they were a lot more confident in ordering it or talking about it,” he adds.

You can only drink orange wine in East London

Gurney is also keen for wine fans to remember that “not all orange wine is drunk in East London’s Hackney”. Though orange wine re-emerged in the past decade mostly via the natural wine scene that grew roots in areas like east London, where lots of restaurants and bars were keener to experiment, orange wine as a whole has largely struggled to shake this stereotypical persona off. 

Three orange wines to try, as recommended by sommeliers

Orange Wine, Ancre Hill 2020, £30

Intergalactic, Rennersistas 2022, £25.99

Cros des Calades Dolmen 2022, £18.95