While wine may be its name, this definitely doesn’t look like your average glass of red, white, or rosé and that’s precisely the point. Poured into a glass, orange wine sits somewhere between amber and burnished gold, catching the light like a cocktail rather than a classic white. Interestingly, orange wine is also called ‘amber wine’ or ‘ramato,’ which means auburn in Italian. Featured on Zendaya and Robert Pattinson’s newest dark comedy, The Drama, orange wine is about to become your favourite summer drink, and we’re here to tell you all about it.
Remember! Despite the name, orange wine has nothing to do with the fruit. It’s made from white grapes, but fermented with their skins—much like red wine—giving it that deep amberish colour, some texture, and a flavour profile that sits somewhere between crisp whites and light reds. Think tannic, slightly funky, sometimes nutty, often complex. For reasons we’ll get into in the latter half of this story, this wine doesn’t just sit in your glass, waiting to be devoured. It starts conversations, spills the tea, and gets you moving!
From buzzy wine bars to home cellars, orange wine is showing up everywhere, driven by a broader shift towards low-intervention wines, experimental palates, and a growing appetite for drinks that tell a story. And of course, the unforgiving Indian heat makes it all the more welcome to refresh our days with some fun and bubbles. Below, everything you may or may not already know about our newest hyper-fixation beverage: orange wine.
What Is Orange Wine?
Orange comes from white wine grapes but is produced using a technique more commonly associated with reds: fermenting the juice with the grape skins and seeds.
In most white winemaking, the skins are removed almost immediately after pressing, which is why white wines are typically light, clear, and crisp. Orange wine flips that. By leaving the skins in contact with the juice—sometimes for days, weeks, or even months—the wine develops its signature shade, along with a deeper structure and a more complex, layered flavour profile.
This method, often called skin-contact winemaking, isn’t new. It actually dates back thousands of years, most notably to traditional practices in Georgia. Today, that same approach has been revived by winemakers around the world, in line with the natural and low-intervention wine movement.
What you get in the glass is something that intriguingly sits between categories. Orange wines tend to have the freshness of a white, but with the tannic grip and texture of a light red, often accompanied with flavours that range from dried fruit and citrus peel to nuts, herbs, and subtle spice.
So yes, orange wine probably tastes like nothing you’ve had before, offering notes of jackfruit (a fleshy tropical fruit), hazelnut, brazil nut, bruised apple, wood varnish, linseed oil, juniper, sourdough, and dried orange rind. They can be cloudy, and sometimes even slightly funky. But that unpredictability is part of the appeal and the discovery.
The best part? Because orange wine tastes nothing like your average wine, it pairs perfectly with food that would otherwise never go well with your classic reds and whites. For instance, the tannin in orange wine helps cut through the bold, spicy flavours of curry dishes and Indian cuisine. On the other hand, the sourness matches well against fermented flavours like kimchi in Korean dishes and nattō in Japanese food. And lastly, unlike red or white wines, orange wines pair well with both thicker meats and fish.
A History Spanning 8,000 Years
Drinking orange wine is akin to sipping history.
Long before the wine became a menu mainstay at natural wine bars, it was the only way wine was made. Its story begins around 6,000 BCE in Georgia, widely considered the birthplace of winemaking itself. Here, early vintners fermented grapes—skins, seeds, and all—in large clay vessels called qvevri, buried underground to maintain a steady temperature, which were closed with flagstones and sealed with beeswax.
From Georgia, these methods spread across parts of Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, shaping early wine cultures in regions like Slovenia and northeastern Italy. For centuries, skin-contact wines were commonplace, tied to local agricultural and community practices. But as winemaking industrialised through the 19th and 20th centuries, clean, clear, and consistent wines became the global standard. Extended skin contact for white grapes was largely abandoned, as it was seen as unpredictable and difficult to control.
As a result, it was orange wine that slipped to the margins, kept alive only by a handful of traditional producers, especially in Georgia and parts of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of Italy.
Why Is Everyone Suddenly Drinking It?
The revival of orange wine actually began in the late 20th century, when a group of winemakers in Italy and Slovenia started looking backwards to move forward. In the 1990s, names like Josko Gravner and Stanko Radikon became central to this resurgence, who rejected industrial techniques in favour of older, more intuitive methods.
Their work coincided with a growing interest in natural wines: a movement that championed minimal intervention, indigenous yeast, and a return to terroir-driven expression. They tapped into a growing consumer demand for natural, authentic, and “funky” wines, hence turning orange winemaking into a ‘new-old’ process.
In 2026, owing to surging consumer demand for natural, artisanal food and beverages, orange wine is making a come back into the mainstream.
While India’s orange wine scene is still very niche, it’s taking shape, led by a handful of experimental producers. The most notable name right now is Plateaux Vintners. Founded by former Sula winemaker Ajoy Shaw, this small-batch label has been actively working with Chenin Blanc to produce orange wines in extremely limited quantities.
Unlike larger wine brands, Plateaux operates on a micro-production model, producing about 100 bottles per vintage. Hence, the focus is a lot on craft, experimentation, and minimal intervention, aligning closely with the global natural wine movement.
So, it’s no wonder that Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) wish to make said orange wine the primary beverage of choice at their wedding. If anything, it’ll ensure the good times keep rolling in!
Read more: These Are Mumbai’s 5 Best Wine Bars
Also read: Red, White, and Clueless! A Beginner’s Guide To Drinking (And Loving) Wine
