“Brorange” – The New Brosé?

I was struck by the orange color of the Georgian wines presented during our midterm talks, but didn’t think much of it until last week when I had dinner in San Francisco and our hosts ordered an orange wine.

I had never seen a wine that wasn’t white, red, or, until the explosion of rose a few years ago, pink.  And I have to tell you, seeing it up-close-and-person was weird: like a pale orange soda, but full of light, and entirely off-putting.

Orange wine – the other “off-white” table wine sitting between traditional red and traditional white – could be considered the evil twin of rosé: pink/blush wines are made by getting the juice off red wine grape skins more quickly than normal, while orange wines are left by leaving the juice on white wine grapes longer than normal.

With growing population, orange wines are being produced around the world, but the country of Georgia is still the orange wine capital.  There orange wine is still aged in bees-waxed lined clay vats called “qvevri,” a practice that’s been used for hundreds of years.  However, we’ll likely see other countries producing in much greater quantities (with variations along the production processes), if, as some industry insiders predict, it becomes wine’s hot new thing.