Orange wine? (White grapes fermented like a red)

[GreenEnvy22]

Anyone have experience to share with making a white wine like a red? Crushing and leaving on skins? This is called Orange wine

I tried searching but mostly got threads discussing making wine from oranges.

The local teaching winery here is experimenting with it. Wondering if I should try it too.

 

[Johnd]

I found plenty, here’s a couple.

https://winefolly.com/review/orange-wine/
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/orange-wine-skin-contact

 

[Masbustelo]

I've read quite a bit about it, but haven't tried it yet.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

I found plenty, here’s a couple.

https://winefolly.com/review/orange-wine/
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/orange-wine-skin-contact

Yea i found plenty on other websites, was just looking for insight from WMT members.

 

[Johnd]

Yea i found plenty on other websites, was just looking for insight from WMT members.

Understood. There are some pretty good articles written by WineMaker Magazine, but you need to have a digital membership to get to them..............

 

[tradowsk]

Was at a local winery recently that had an extended maceration chardonnay I was able to sample. It had a really good body and a nice depth of flavor, but it also had some significant medicinal characteristics to it that might not be to everyone's liking. So just be careful not to overdo it

 

[E-man]

@GreenEnvy22 curious if you found out any more guidance or if you tried this and how this turned out? I’m starting 100lbs of Riesling that I racked off 5 gallons of juice for a “clean batch” and am going to try some extended skin contact during fermentation for the remainder but was hoping to get some more info on time frames for skin contact and fermentation temps. Was planning on keeping it on the cool side for temps ~70f. Might need to reduce the amount of skins by a little bit also.
Thanks in advance for any info...

 

[heatherd]

@GreenEnvy22 I haven't yet but have been thinking about doing an orange muscat juice from Walker's Fruit: Orange Muscat - Walker's Wine Juice, LLC

"Orange Muscat has dominant flavors of orange blossoms and ripe apricot, with hints of tangerine, lime, and delicate spices. Ferments out dry. 5 gallons of single strength juice. Makes about 24 bottles of wine. Comes with yeast and yeast nutrient."

 

[E-man]

@heatherd - Orange Muscat is a type of varietal and that kit appears to be just juice. Not really the “orange wine” in discussion on this thread which is fermenting whites on the skins... However, I have had a bottle of Orange Muscat (dessert wine) from Ledson and it was great. I don’t remember the residual sugar level but it was high!

 

[heatherd]

@heatherd - Orange Muscat is a type of varietal and that kit appears to be just juice. Not really the “orange wine” in discussion on this thread which is fermenting whites on the skins... However, I have had a bottle of Orange Muscat (dessert wine) from Ledson and it was great. I don’t remember the residual sugar level but it was high!

I'm fully aware of what orange wine is - the reason I suggested it is that that varietal has orange notes.

 

[Claudio Lucente]

I made some orange wine in 2013 with Chardonnay. 4 days on skins at 20C. Had our last bottle a couple of weeks ago. Held up great. Trail Estates winery in Prince Edward County, ON makes a few different varieties of orange wines, some with 100+ days of skin contact. Also check out Simon J Woolf's book "Amber Revolution".

 

[Juniper Hill]

I made a 3 gallon batch of orange wine from a local aromatic white this year. Fermented on skins X 7 days. No MLF. Beautiful orange color, interesting flavor profile - just finished AF though.

 

[dizzy]

Hey did you ever end up making an orange wine @GreenEnvy22 ? I have a bunch of cab sauv skins I want to do something with. Will use one big pack in a red juice pail and was thinking to do a franken-rose. But I wonder if it might actually turn out more like one of these orange wines. I was coming up with the same issues in my search. I've had these in Georgia (the country, not the state) and they are really unique. Trying to figure out what juice to pair the skins with too.

 

[Juniper Hill]

I racked mine the other day. Didn't love the flavour - lots of tannin, which was quite strange in a "white" wine. Tried some sugar on a small sample to see if it would improve things...it didn't

 

[GreenEnvy22]

I haven't tried. I didn't get anything from our Muscat last year, so didn't try. Maybe this year, but I may choose to devote everything to our normal Muscat since I'll be missing a year already.

 

[dizzy]

@Juniper Hill hmm interesting to know. What grape varietal did you use?

 

[JenInAz]

@Juniper Hill I am also curious to know your varietal as well as any other details like temp.

 

[Juniper Hill]

@Juniper Hill I am also curious to know your varietal as well as any other details like temp.

Hello,
I fermented at about 70 F until dryness ~ 1 week. Should have pressed off a few days earlier - would have limited tannin extraction. Varietal is a local one similar to Riesling.