Orange Wines To Drink While You Hand Out Halloween Candy
When Halloween falls on a weekday in America, we get multiple weekends of parties on both sides of October 31st. In fact, Halloween has become a month-long series of festivities for showing off costume ingenuity to friends IRL and on social media. One upping each other in who can best reference known memes and cultural moments has become the communication of the month, once the calendar turns to fall and the pumpkin spice lattes hit Starbucks. As you pass out candy corn, Reese's peanut butter cups, and all the other delicious orange candies, here are some Orange Wines I recommend you pop and sip as you enjoy the onslaught of awesome costumes at your front door.
Courtesy of Château Mukhrani
The Republic of Georgia, for all intents and purposes, is where the style of Orange Wine originates. You'll also hear it referred to as Amber Wine, Macerated Wine, and Skin-Fermented Wine.
Château Mukhrani is located in the Kartli region of Georgia, Northwest of Tbilisi. They use all estate fruit to produce this wine, which is a blend of 60% Rkatsiteli & 40% Goruli Mtsvane. The non-crushed grapes are loaded into the Qvevris, local clay vessels that range in size from 900 liters to 2,100 liters. After fermentation finishes, the Qvevris are hermetically sealed to allow natural malolactic fermentation. The wine goes through a total period of 6 months skin maceration, giving a hefty structure and unique aromatic profile of tea leaves, tobacco, and petrol. A ripe stone fruit paired with floral notes, apricot and peach, doused in bright honey.
Recommended to enjoy with fish like Atlantic Salmon or Sea Bream.
Suggested Retail Price: $35
Courtesy of C.L. Butaud
EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TEXAS. C.L. Butaud brings us a delicious Pinot Gris Ramato made using the tradition that dates back hundreds of years in the Italian wine region of Friuli, nor far from the famed city of Venice. What distinguishes Ramato from a Rosé is that it's made almost exclusively with Pinot Grigio fruit using the historical skin-contact winemaking process of the region.
Founded in Austin, TX in 2014 by husband & wife Randy and Brooke Hester. The mission was to create ultra-premium wines entirely from Texas vineyards, building on their experience working at some of the most acclaimed Napa Valley wineries. The Hesters’ winemaking journey began in 2006 in Napa Valley, where they set out on a 10-year path of training, education and research under noteworthy winemakers and mentors.
A fresh nose of strawberry and cranberry leads to a textured palate that gives great tannic structure and a kiss of minerality. You'll obviously want this with Texas style BBQ! Smoke some brisket the way they do in Austin, grill up some hot links, and all the grilled veggies.
Suggested Retail Price: $38
Courtesy of Kivelstadt Cellars
With a winemaking philosophy that begins from the ground up, Kivelstadt Cellars believes in organic farming, minimal intervention, and approachability of the wines. Winemaker Luke Nio is a Sonoma local, crafting wines of place in vineyards he knows like the back of his hand.
The Pinot Grigio is grown at the Pintail Ranch Vineyard, which has beautiful long rows of PG found just across the street from the Sacramento River in Clarksburg. These vines are trained using quadrilateral cordon and are tall. This creates a large shaded canopy which protects the fruit from any temperature swings, and the deep alluvial soil has plenty of nutrients to support these large canopies.
The skin fermented Pinot Grigio went to work in a closed top fermenter. The grapes were de-stemmed and fermented on the skins with ambient & native yeast doing the heavy lifting. It was macerated on the skins for 13 days prior to pressing, once pressed off the skins the wine completes primary and malolactic fermentation in neutral French oak where it spends 6 months on the lees. It was bottled without fining, leaving a supple wine that gives aromatics of forest floor and pine, rhubarb and bing cherry on the palate. This wine is alive. Enjoy with a watermelon and feta salad, squash and quinoa salad, or honey-citrus chicken.
Suggested Retail Price: $35
Courtesy of The Vice
The Vice was founded by husband and wife Malek Amrani & Torie Greenberg. The aim is to produce luxury wines in the Napa Valley made in small batches. Malek and Torie Greenberg work tirelessly to build The Vice as the brand of choice for wine diehards and first-timers, balancing the classic quality of California vineyards with a current understanding and unwavering awareness of consumer trends. Malek handles the winemaking, and Torie is responsible for all things visual & branding.
"The Lakers" offers a lush bouquet of dry peach, dry apricot and kumquat on the nose. The palate is rich and velvety with a long finish that stretches out hints of vanilla and toasted almond. Orange zest, tropical fruit, and lemongrass make it an excellent wine to have with spicy Thai food, Korean BBQ, or hot pot.
- 100% Unfined and Unfiltered Viognier.
- Skin fermented to complete dryness
- 14 months of lees aging in Concrete Eggs and neutral oak barrels
- Low Sulfites added
- Only 420 cases produced
Suggested Retail Price: $35
Courtesy of Tarpon Cellars
Made from grapes grown in the Clarksburg AVA near the Sacramento River Delta, the 2021 Tarpon Cellars "Cambaro" Skin Contact wine is a blend of 93% Chenin Blanc, 6% Sauvignon Blanc, and 1% Verdejo. YES that 1% matters! The dense clay and loam soils of Clarksburg inspire aromatic white wines with a mineral quality and supple texture. These conditions are perfect for the Cambaro Skin Contact blend made by Tarpon Cellars!
Picked early to retain acidity, the fruit was de-stemmed into an open top tank and fermented on the skins for 17 days. Pressed after dryness, the wine was racked into neutral barrels for eight months to complete Malo-lactic fermentation, then bottled with minimal SO2. No fining, no additions, and only a light filtration on the bottling line.
Maybe you're slurping oysters while passing out Halloween candy? This is your orange wine.
Suggested Retail Price: $26
