“Think of an orange wine as white wine made in the red wine process,” says Hueker. Macerating is commonly used to make red wine in order to deepen the color and add more body. Orange wine uses this same technique with white wine grapes, but the skins just have less pigment.

Orange Wine Tastes Like Nothing You've Had Before On the palate, they're bold, dry, and have tannin (like unsweetened iced tea) with a sourness similar to fruit beer. Because of their natural acidity and tannin, orange wines pair with a wide diversity of foods.

Treat your orange wines like a full-bodied white or quality rosé. Serve them chilled, around 50 to 57°F. The more heavy on the tannins (i.e., the more amber-hued), the warmer you'll want to serve the wine. Skew toward colder for fresher styles.

Orange is renowned for producing refined, delicately flavoured examples of everything from sparkling to reds. From sauvignon blanc to chardonnay and shiraz, discover more about the region's hero varieties below, which James Halliday says show “elegance and fine-boned intensity across styles”.