What is the origin of orange wine?


Orange wine was first introduced in Georgia and it dates thousands of years back. It is a variant of white wine where the skin grapes are not removed after crushing the grapes. Instead, the skins are left to ferment with the grape juice, similarly to red wine. The style of skin-contact white wine was adopted by Italian and Slovenian winemakers, after visiting Georgia. It then spread to other European countries. 

Skin-fermented white wines were common up until the 1960s, when fresh white wines started to dominate the market.

The term orange wine was coined only in 2004 by a British wine importer.

In Georgia skin-contact white wine is historically known as amber wine.