This Saint Patrick’s Day, ditch the green beer and enjoy a glass of the OTHER color in the Irish flag – orange! CORK offers a variety of orange wines, which are all the rage right now. Check them out below and shop in-store daily from 11AM to 8PM. If you prefer, reserve your wine online for easy pickup!
First, a brief crash course on orange wine. Orange wine contains no orange, and is not exclusively made of a single grape variety. Take white grapes, mash them, and place the grapes – juice, skin and seeds – in a container, typically made of stone or clay, to ferment. Additives are usually not part of the equation, so the result is often tart and nutty – think wild ale in wine’s clothing.
Now, for CORK’s orange wine selections!
Somos Naranjito (McLaren Vale, South Australia)
Our first entry is the perfect intro to orange wine. Made from 100% Verdelho, there’s heaps of ginger spice, tangerine, orange peel and baked pairs, along with hints of toffee apple on the nose. The palate is soft and creamy with bright orange pith, mandarin crunch, as well as notes of brioche and caramel.
Alpha Box and Dice Golden Mullet Fury 2018 (McLaren Vale, Australia)
Next is another selection from ‘Down Under.’ The influence for Golden Mullet Fury is drawn from winemaking traditions of Eastern Europe, where skin contact wines have been made for thousands of years. Made from Semillon grapes, there are aromas of dried hay, almond butter, nectarines, curry leaf. On the palate, there’s saline, spicy, buttered chestnuts, bright acidity and a smooth, round mouthfeel. This is a bold, rich, creamy white wine that has savory aromas and flavors. Pair GMF with pork belly, spicy dishes and rich fish.
Vino di Anna Palmento (Sicily)
Palmento Bianco is a field blend of organically grown, indigenous grapes, mainly grown high on the northern slopes of Mt Etna, Sicily. Pale straw in color, this wine has delicate white floral notes coupled with grapefruit and lemons. It is crisp and dry on the palate, with citrus fruit flavors and an underlying minerality.
Fiegl Ribolla 2019 (Fruili, Italy)
Made from the Ribolla Gialla grape variety, Fiegl Ribolla is the perfect orange wine for the Chardonnay lover, as it is rich with cinnamon and nutmeg. It’s fresh, supported by a nice saltiness and is ideal with hearty seafood dishes like swordfish and salmon, but it would also complement pork and apple dishes.
Tre Monti Vitalba Albana in Anfora (Emilia-Romagna, Italy)
Vitalba is produced via an exchange project between Georgian and Italian winemakers. The intent is to produce a wine using an Italian variety, Albana, using a traditional Georgian method – aging the wine in an amphora made of beeswax, allowing minor oxidization. The result is an alluring wine that offers an array of intriguing aromas including saline, dried yellow stone fruit, baking spice and honey. The vibrant, savory palate continues to open up in the glass, doling out dried apricot, candied orange zest, tobacco and candied ginger alongside racy acidity and flinty minerality.
Dato’s Wine Chkhaveri Amber (Chkhaveri, Georgia)
Another Georgian amphora-aged wine, Dato’s Amber is produced with Chkhaveri grapes, a light red variety that results in a yellow, amber wine. Fun fact: a portion of this wine is derived from a single, 100 year old vine tree. Dato’s is a crisp wine with notes of apple and wild pear and is best enjoyed with white fish.
Scribe Skin Fermented Chardonnay (Sonoma, California)
Like so many of Scribe’s wines, this one began as an experiment. When some clone grape clusters weren’t cooperating with others, Scribe isolated them and fermented them with the skins left intact for 101 days. The process added the necessary color, texture and structure to create a delicate balance against the clone’s pronounced floral, tropical fruity notes. It has the soul of a classic Chardonnay with bright fruit, green apple and Anjou pear with nutmeg and subdued spice. Enjoy it with Moroccan-inspired cuisine.
