Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Did You Know?... About Orange Wine

All wine start out white. Well, to be more clear, when pressed (or crushed) you'll notice that all grape juice runs clear. We get red wine by exposing the fermenting juice to the skins (known as "must") of the grapes early in the fermentation process. The pinkish hues or rose wines occur by exposing the fermenting juice to the skins of those red wine grapes for a very short period of time. The more exposure, the redder the wine gets, depending on the grape.

White wines almost never touch the skins after pressing. If the skins of white grapes are exposed to the fermenting juice, the juice picks up orange hues, creating what is called "Orange Wine." This has a tendency to reduce or mute the bright, acidic flavors of a particularly wine and is just one technique (of dozens) employed by winemakers in working their craft. While rose wines are commonplace today, however, it's more rare to find orange wine.

So: skins of white wine grapes allowed to ferment with the wine = orange wine.


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