James Ratcliffe, Co-Owner of The Black Bull, on the Delight of Orange Wine…
Once upon a time, it used to be simple. There was only red, white and rosé, but now we have orange, chilled red, natural, conventional and much more.
It might appear that these new-fangled wines are a product of the hipster generation, but the fact is that they’ve been around much longer than you think. In fact, orange probably pre-dates white wine, and was previously just considered how white wine was produced.
Have you ever noticed the wine in old paintings? If you look again, you’ll notice it isn’t translucent like modern wine but orange. Modern white wine is made by pressing the grapes, separating off the juice and discarding the skins, stems and pips. Orange wine is made by leaving the juice with some kind of skin contact, or even pips and stems, too. This can be for a couple of days, sometimes for much longer, like weeks, months and in extreme conditions, even years. In essence, what that means is that the wine takes in a whole lot of different flavours. Making it more robust, textured and complex depending on the grapes used, and the process.
When we first started serving orange wine at the Black Bull, it took a while for people to get their heads around it. Whilst orange wine was becoming commonplace in the trendy bars of London and Manchester, we had seen it that much out in the sticks. It looked funny, it smelled funny, so people didn’t quite understand it, and it had some flavours we didn’t quite associate with wine, like bitter, marmalade and funky. It didn’t really help that I had a waiter at the time who insisted on telling customers it was made with actual oranges, something he found highly amusing, and I did not.
Orange wine has now become much more common; you can pick it up on increasingly more menus. You can even find it now in supermarkets, but I’m not sure these would be ones I’d recommend. For me, it’s a go-to favourite. It’s so versatile with food, and many are simply very gluggable on their own. Taste-wise, orange wines can be the most unusual and can take a little bit of getting used to, but I would encourage you to try. Like all types of wine, and despite them still being rare, there is a large variety to choose from.
The fresher styles of orange wine are probably the ones I’d recommend trying first. We have several on the menu, and we use them as an introduction to orange wine for those who haven’t tried it before. These usually have less skin contact and are much closer to white wine than others. They are very approachable, with flavours like tropical fruits, bruised apple, different types of tea and sometimes a little spice. These ‘fresher’ orange wines are often cloudy; some might have a slight fizz, but embrace this instead of letting it put you off. These can certainly be drunk alone or with lighter dishes like salads or roast chicken. Crazy Lud by Oskar Maurer is an excellent example, available online at Roland wines, or Entre Vinyes’s Oniric Brisat, available online from Modal Wines. Both are very approachable and very drinkable.
Radikon is a winery in Friuli which shares a border with Slovenia. A relatively small estate that’s become synonymous with skin contact and orange wines. Hailed as one of the heroes of natural wine who helped pave the way for skin contact for white wines again in modern winemaking. Their Pinot Grigio ‘Sivi’ is one of the first orange wines I ever tried, or at least I remember. Pinot Grigio is often considered such a bland grape, the butt of many a wine joke, but it can produce some fantastic wine. The slightly pink tinge in the grape’s skin creates this crossover or blend of orange and rose, creating something very unique. It’s certainly a complex wine, with notes of candied fruits, tangerine, a bit of spice and elements of pith in taste and texture. This is just one of their wines, many of which can be bought in person or online at Buon Vino. If you visit the shop, I’m sure that if you pop into Courtyard Dairy, they’ll recommend a fantastic farmhouse cheese to go with it.
For those looking for something a bit more serious, or even more mature and complex, there’s a selection which could be considered more sophisticated wines. Sometimes I panic when I see a crystal-clear orange wine; it can go one of two ways. The darker orange wines are generally so because they spend more time on the skins. In this process, they take on more tannins as well as bitter, less fruity and nutty flavours. Additional fermentation methods can lead to the wines being more oxidative, too. These are flavours that many wine drinkers don’t necessarily pair with a good wine. However, when the balance of these flavours is right, it can produce some excellent examples of orange wine. Ideally best with food, but these flavours allow the wine to stand up to some big flavours like cheeses, stews, curries, miso roasted foods and grilled oily fish.
Klabjan, from Slovenia, do an excellent example of these more complex orange wines. It’s a wine I also try to have on the menu when it’s available. It’s made with Malvasia grapes, has notes of marmalade, apple compote and honeysuckle. Powerful and intense, with nuttiness and wild herbs. I’ve had several customers tell me they didn’t like orange wine until they tried this. This isn’t dipping your toe in, though; it’s full-on wild swimming on the fell top, but that doesn’t seem to faze people. Available online at Roland wines, which has a great selection of other orange wines too.