by Adrian Pike, Winemaker
Skin contact wines are some of the most interesting wines to make because they can be so different from conventionally made white wines. They offer something extra - more texture, more grip and a completely different spectrum of flavours.
An orange wine is a white wine that's made like a red wine. Instead of pressing the juice away from the skins straight away, the juice is left in contact with the grape skins during fermentation. Those skins slowly bring colour, texture, tannins and an extra layer of flavour to the wine. Depending on how long the wine stays on its skins, the result can be anything from a pale golden wine with a little grip/texture to something deep amber and really complex.
What I enjoy most about orange wines is the combination of texture and depth. The skins contribute flavours that aren't there in the juice alone. Sometimes you want a white wine that's fresh and bright. Other times you want something with more intrigue, and that's where skin contact wines come into their own. They have a depth of flavour, a tactile quality and a finish that you just don't get in the same way from a conventional white wine.
Like many people, my first introduction to skin contact wines came through Georgia, but it was Italian producers who really inspired me. Wines from producers such as La Stoppa and COS were my first real loves, and they continue to make stunning wines today.
It's been exciting to watch orange wine become much more widely available. Many wine shops and supermarkets now have a dedicated orange wine section, and awareness continues to grow.
As with everything we do, the aim has always been to understand how best to express our site and our terroir at Westwell. Our approach has evolved a lot over the past ten harvests. Early on, we deliberately embraced vintage variation. We'd wait until the last possible moment to pick the ripest, cleanest fruit, then experiment with different lengths of skin contact and different fermentation vessels, including stainless steel, amphora, oak and even plastic. The early vintages taught us lots. Some years produced lighter, gentler wines, other years pushed much further, with deep orange colour, huge mid-palate complexity and so much grip that it could begin to overpower the flavours we were trying to reveal.
Today we're aiming for greater consistency. We've found that blending gives us the best expression of what we're trying to achieve. We begin fermentation on skins in stainless steel and amphora, typically leaving the wine on skins for between two and three weeks before ageing in oak for up to nine months. The aim is to hit the sweet spot - wines that retain texture and complexity and keep the grip satisfying rather than overwhelming.
One of my favourite pairings for our Ortega Skin Contact Amphora is a cheese course. I like opening the bottle straight from the fridge and letting it slowly warm in the glass, moving through lighter goat's cheeses towards harder, aged cheeses as both the wine and the cheeses both evolve.
I think one of the most exciting aspects of well made skin contact wines is their ability to age. We recently opened a bottle of our 2018 Amphora Ortega. It had developed into something completely different… and it was great.
