Ultimately, what I love about skin-contact white wines is that they are über food friendly, and offer a complex array of aromas and flavors not typically found in either white, red or rose wines!

On the second Saturday of each month, a group of bloggers who are passionate about pairing food and wine come together around a wine theme and share food pairings related to that theme. Our theme for May is Skin-Contact White Wines.

A Type Of Wine By Any Other Name…

Skin-contact wines (a.k.a “orange wines,” skin-fermented,” “macerated”, or “amber wines,”) are white wines made like red wines. What makes red wines red. “They ferment with the grape skins, which give wine its color. Depending on how long the juice ferments with the skins—anywhere from a few hours to many months—skin-contact wines can range in color from golden-straw yellow to vibrant amber to Tony the Tiger orange. The time with the skins also gives these wines more red wine characteristics, like bigger body and more tannin, while maintaining the acidity of a white wine. The longer the skins hang with the juice, the bigger and bolder the wine”. Source

Perhaps more so that than red, white or rosé wines, skin-contact wines are affiliated with very minimal intervention (some might say “natural) winemaking techniques. Most skin-contact wines are bottled unfiltered and unfined, so don’t be surprise to see visible sediment or the wine may even appear cloudy.

What Is Old, Is New Again!

While skin-contact white wines have been trending in the United States for a decade or so, their roots lie in the mountainous Eastern European country of Georgia. There, skin-contact wines are made in large, egg-shaped terracotta pots called qveri. These vessels are buried up to their neck and the wine is left to ferment from a few days to up to six months. The process, which dates back more than 6,000 years. Georgians call these skin-contact white wines “amber wine”.

According to Wine Enthusiast, in the early 1990s, inspired by Georgian winemaking techniques and natural viticulture, a pair of cult winemakers from the northeastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Stanko Radikon and Joško Gravner, began to produce skin-contact wines.

There, the wines are called ramato, which translates to “copper-colored.” Made from grapes like Ribolla Gialla and Tocai Friulano, as well as Pinot Grigio, Radikon and Gravner brought skin-contact wines to prominence. It inspired a new era of experimentation throughout the region and elsewhere.

I’m bringing three skin-contact (“orange”) wines and pairing them with a variety of ethnic fare.

2017 Two Shepherds Pinot Gris Skin Fermented Saralee’s Vineyard; Russian River Valley

From the winery “We are pleased to bring you our first skin contact Pinot Gris from the esteemed Saralees’s Vineyard….inspired by Dolce our affable miniature Sicilian donkey. Fermented on the skins for 5 days, with native yeast, then aged in neutral French barrels for 6 months.

Tasting Note: The wine is slightly cloudy strawberry red with coppery reflections and pear, quince, blood orange, sourdough, and rose hips aromas. On the palate, it’s medium-bodied, subtlety tannic and very fresh with raspberry, quince paste, blood orange, apricot flavors that have a marmalade quality for me, meaning there’s ample fruitiness (especially if you serve it at cellar temperature), but this wine also has a tart, tangy, savory quality, and those two seemingly opposites tastes seamlessly intermingle to create a compelling über food-friendly wine with a very satisfying finish. 12.5% abv.

Food Pairing: The wine was a fabulous pairing with our Sicilian-inspired Pasta with Sardines, Bread Crumbs and Capers!

2018 Giornata Pinot Grigio Ramato Bassi Ranch; San Luis Obispo County

This wine is 100% Pinot Grigio. The fruit was sourced from Bassi Ranch Vineyard is located in Avila Beach. Farmed biodynamically (though not certified). From the winery; “This version goes through a typical red wine fermentation with daily punchdowns (followed by extended 180 day maceration) in our Italian amphorae. Native yeast fermentation. Hand bottled unfined and unfiltered after 8 months in terra cotta.

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Tasting Note: The wine pours a coppery orange with appealing and complex, dried apricot, strawberry, melon, blood and mandarin orange, roasted hazelnut, and a hint of floral aromas. On the palate it’s medium-bodied, focused and fresh with tangy acidity. Its tannins remind me of a teas that has steeped a bit too long. I like that. It tastes of dried apricot, and peaches, yellow melon, and blood orange marmalade accented with a very appealing minerality with a medium-long tangy finish. 13% abv|SRP – $35.

Food pairings: My wife is not as enthusiastic about skin-contact white wine as I am (“needs food” she frequently says), so I enjoyed this bottle over the course of a few days.  I enjoyed it more on Days 2 and 3 than on Day 1. We paired it Grilled Lemongrass Chicken and Grilled Beef Sausage Vermicelli Bowls, Sweet and Sour Chicken Meatballs, and Indian Spiced Chicken and Spinach Skillet Supper inspired by Makhani Chicken. It was great with both Grilled Chicken and Beef Vermicelli Bowls and the Indian Spiced Chicken and Spinach Skillet Supper.  It was very good with the Sweet and Sour Chicken Meatballs.

2017 Matthiasson Ribolla Gialla Matthiasson Vineyard; Napa Valley

From the winery: “The Ribolla gialla represents seven rows in our home (“Matthiasson”) vineyard in the Western Oak Knoll area of Napa Valley. It was grafted onto 15 year old Merlot vines. George Vare was given a few sticks of the budwood from Josko Gravner in 2001 and grafted it into his own vineyard, which Steve was managing. Steve (and then Jill) fell in love with the variety in the process, and immediately grafted the variety into their own vineyard when they purchased it in 2006. Farmed using only organic methods.”

Tasting Note: Cloudy amber color with hazelnut, sunflower seeds, dried apricot, pear, Meyer lemon peel, subtle baking spice aromas and wet stone aromas. On the palate it’s medium-bodied and structured with vibrant and tangy acidity and present, but supple tannins with pear, dried apricot, hazelnuts Meyer lemon curd, and subtle baking spice flavors with a very appealing stony minerality and a long finish. 11% abv|SRP – $45

Food Pairing: We paired this with homemade Paella Mixta with Salmon, Shrimp and Chorizo. It was a another fabulous pairing.

Takeaways

• This was a fun comparison of three top California producers of skin-contact white wines, each crafting distinctive and compelling exemplars of the type.
• Skin-contact wines are great candidates for pairing with ethnic fare. They certainly paired well with the Italian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Indian fare we paired them with. Not only that, they paired well with various proteins including fish, shellfish, chicken, and beef.
• Ultimately, what I love about skin-contact white wines is that they are über food friendly, and offer a complex array of aromas and flavors not typically found in either white, red or rose wines!

Join The Conversation

If you’re interested in learning more about skin-contact white wines and their incredible affinity for food, please join our #WinePW Twitter chat this Saturday, May 9th on Twitter at 11am ET. Just follow the #WinePW hashtag. If you can’t make the chat, or even if you can, be sure to support my fellow bloggers and check out their experiences with these wines, and food pairings galore!

• Camilla of Culinary Adventures With Camilla will be Diving into the Skin Fermented Wine Pool of Two Shepherds Winery.
• Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm presents Donkey and Goat Skin Fermented Roussanne: A Baaaaad Ass Wine.
• Andrea of The Quirky Cork takes up Turkish Amber Wines and Fast Food.
• Olivier of In Taste Buds We Trust is Trying Orange and Non-Orange Wine with Jamie’s Kinda Niçoise Salad.
• Lori of Exploring The Wine Glass asks Orange You Glad I Have Wine?
• Jeff of Food Wine Click! offers Wine 201: Orange Wine Primer.
• Jill of L’Occasion has us Thinking Wine: The Engaging World of Orange Wine.
• Linda of My Full Wine Glass is Revisiting NY Finger Lakes Skin-Contact White Wines.
• David of Cooking Chat proffers Cauliflower Bacon Spread with Amber Wine from Georgia.
• Gwendolyn at Wine Predator will be featuring Orange Wines from California and Italy by Accident and On Purpose Paired with Shrimp Curry.
• Lauren at The Swirling Dervish posts He Said, She Said: Ryme Cellars and the Tale of Two Vermentinos.
• Susannah of Avvinare serves up Orange Wine From Slovenia’s Movia Paired with Homemade Sushi.
• Katrina of The Corkscrew Concierge wonders Is Orange (Wine) the New Everything Wine?
• Nicole at Somm’s Table is Cooking to the Wine: Kabaj Rebula and Chicken with Mushroom Escabeche and Lentils.
• Rupal, the Syrah Queen advises us that Radikon Orange Wine – Not Just For Hipsters.
• Deanna of Asian Test Kitchen offers Logan Wines’ Orange Wine And The Bacon That Changed It All.
• Terri of Our Good Life declares Orange Wine is a Thing.
• Host Martin at ENOFYLZ Wine Blog serves up A Cadre Of California Skin-Contact Wines Paired With Ethnic Fare.

Cheers!