Tag: Orange Wines

Orange Glou Wine Festival 2023

Published on by Bruno DonaggioLeave a comment

On November 5th I attended the Orange Glou orange wine festival. The event was held at the Wythe Hotel at 80 Wythe Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

It featured 50+ wineries pouring over 100 renditions of orange wines from California, Italy, France, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Czech Republic, Georgia and Australia. It seems to have become a specially in the Balkan states which are always well represented at these type of wine tastings.

Orange wines are an unconventional niche in the wine industry, made by unconventional wine makers using such things like star charts, phases of the moon, etc., in their grape growing and wine making.

Normally white wine is made with the pulp of the fruit minus the skins, so you can make a white wine using red grapes. Red wine is red because the skins are macerated with the juice and the color is extracted from the skin contact. With respect to orange wines, a white grape varietal is used and the skin in allowed to macerate with the juice. which somehow turns the color of the wine into an orange hue.

The event was open to the consumer for two sessions. I attended the evening session, and it was a comparatively young crowd in attendance with more flannel shirts than suits and ties.

Donkey & Goat winery from California poured a nice selection of their orange wines with a couple of Pinot Gris and a couple of wines made with the Rhone varietals of Marsanne and Roussanne.

Some interesting wines from Klansjec Winery from the Friuli-Venezia-Guilia region of Italy pouring oranges wines made from Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Riesling and Ribolla Gialla.

Orange Glou Fair 2022

Published on by Bruno DonaggioLeave a comment

If the Raw Wine Festival showcased a niche in the world, a niche within the niche would be Raw Orange wines.

Everyone knows that the red in red wine comes from the pigments in the skin of the grape that gets extracted in the fermentation process. White wines are made from the pulp of the grape which means you can make a white wine with red grapes.

With orange wines, the skins of white grapes are fermented with the pulp and the result is a wine with an orange hue. I don’t know the science behind it but that’s what happens.

Orange Glou is a wine shop located at 264 Broome Street in lower Manhattan that focuses on Orange Wine. On November 6th they held the Orange Glou Fair, a tasting of over 50 orange wines from around the world. The event was held at Fig. 19, a cocktail bar at 131 Christie Street in lower Manhattan.

Unlike the Raw Wine Fest which was held in a cavernous event space with hundreds of wines, this was a bit more intimate. Wines from many countries were poured with a good many of them Natural wines. Austria made a strong showing. There was even an orange pet-nat from Long Island called Gratitude, that was poured.