Good news: HEMA launches orange wine
Orange wines have been making waves in the wine world for a while now. They’re appearing on wine bar and restaurant menus more and more often. And hooray: you can now also buy this orange-colored wine (temporarily) at HEMA. Trust us, you’ll want to try it.
Orange wine?
Orange wine, as it’s known worldwide, is truly very different from anything you’ve tasted before. Put simply, it’s white wine with a bite. It tastes a little like strong jasmine tea and herbs. A good orange wine is juicy and soft, smells wonderfully of peach and honey, and goes well with whatever you happen to feel like eating at that moment. The great thing is that its remarkable flavor pairs just as well with meat as it does with vegetables and fish.
The skin
Naturally, you may be wondering how wine turns orange. Well, it happens like this: orange wine is made from white grapes that have had extended contact with the skins (and sometimes the seeds and stems too). This gives the wine a deeper, more intense color and (just like red wines) more tannins and bitterness. The color ranges from light to morning-pee yellow to energy-drink orange, depending on the length of skin contact and the grape variety; pinot gris, for example, imparts more color than chardonnay.
Don’t believe the hype
Contrary to what many people think, orange wine isn’t a trendy drink. In fact, this style has been around for a few thousand years, traditionally in Friuli on the border between Italy and Slovenia, in Austria, Georgia and Israel; tannins naturally protect wine from spoiling. The traditional winemakers themselves, however, will never talk about ‘orange wines’, because the term is new. It was coined in 2004 by an Englishman looking for a word to describe this style of white wine.
Want to taste it yourself?
The Orange Natural Wine comes from Romania and is available from this week at HEMA stores and online for €7.50. An extra plus: vegans can also pick up a bottle from the shelf. No animal products were used during the production process. But be quick, because when it’s gone, it’s gone!
Image: Shutterstock.com
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