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What exactly is orange wine?
Orange wine, also called skin-contact or maceration wine, is a white wine made by leaving the must in contact with the grape skins, as is done with reds. Maceration can last from a few hours to months, depending on the producer and the result they want.
The name comes from the colour, not the fruit: it is not made with oranges.
Where does the orange colour come from?
Grape skins contain polyphenols and tannins. When white must ferments with the skins, it extracts them: that is where the colour comes from, from deep gold to amber via orange, and also the texture. The longer the maceration, the more colour and structure the wine usually has.
Orange, brisat and classic white: how they differ
| Classic white | Brisat | Orange | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skin contact | None or very short. | Partial: only part of the wine ferments with the skins (in our catalogue, for example, around 20 %). | From days to weeks, sometimes months. |
| Colour | Pale, straw to gold. | Gold with a hint of orange. | Deep gold to amber. |
| Texture | Light and fresh. | More texture and aroma than a classic white. | Body, soft tannins and some astringency. |
| Legal definition | That of white wine. | None: it depends on the producer. | None. |
“Brisat” is the Catalan term for white wines fermented with their skins (from “brisa”, the skin). Its use is not fully settled and there is no official definition. Here we call wines with partial maceration, such as those of Tren de Vida, brisat, and those that macerate longer, orange. The times in the table are indicative.
Origin: Georgia and the qvevri
The oldest known evidence of winemaking comes from Georgia: a 2017 study dates it between 6000 and 5800 BC, about 8,000 years ago. In that tradition, white grapes are fermented with their skins in qvevri, buried clay vessels, a method UNESCO recognised as intangible cultural heritage in 2013.
That the oldest known wine is Georgian does not mean orange wine was born there or that the tradition is unbroken: it is what the findings say. Producers in many countries are reviving it today. In Catalonia, according to SevenFifty Daily, it was for centuries a common way of making white wine in Terra Alta, where it is called brisat.
What does orange wine taste like?
It is a wine with body and texture and a slight astringency that sets it apart from a conventional white. On the palate you will find dried fruit (apricot, dried peach), spices, yellow flowers and some salinity. It pairs very well with Mediterranean food: aged cheeses, cured meats, croquettes, baked rice and fusion dishes.
How to choose your first orange wine
If it is your first time, start with a brisat: it has the texture and aroma of skin contact without reaching the amber of long macerations. If you already like it, try an orange wine with a longer maceration. And do not worry if it is cloudy: that is normal in unfiltered wines.
In short
- Skins — A white that ferments with them, like a red. That is where the colour comes from.
- No legal definition — Orange and brisat are producers’ terms: there is no rule.
- Georgia — The oldest evidence of wine (6000–5800 BC) and the qvevri, a UNESCO heritage method.
- Start with a brisat — Texture without reaching amber.
Shop orange wine
Our selection of orange and brisat wines is on the orange wine page. If it is your first time, start with a brisat.
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Sources: UNESCO · PNAS (2017) · SevenFifty Daily. Last reviewed: 4 November 2026.