Orange Wine Can’t Be ‘Cool’ Forever. That’s a Good Thing.
A while back, a video started to circulate around Instagram. Brooklyn comedian George Civeris was getting something off his chest: “I can’t believe I fell for orange wine for three years,” he says. “It’s because I have too much faith in food professionals because of my progressive politics.” The crowd roars.
His comments are tongue in cheek, of course. But judging by many of the responses to the post, he’s not alone. “Why is this still a thing?” one commenter asks. Another raises the requisite question: “but was it FUNKY?!”
A backlash, to be sure, has been bubbling up for years. After all, a New Yorker writer deemed orange wine an “assault on pleasure” a couple years ago. What he may have gotten right, all the way back in 2018, was that orange wine had become “a regular character in a particular social niche.” You know the one he means. And whatever your stance on orange wine (this writer, it should be noted, is generally a fan) you’ve got to admit it’s easy to mock.
Now, we’ve reached the point in the trend cycle where it’s leaped from in-the-know wine bars and onto TikTok, providing rich meme fodder. According to some, it’s even verging on “cheugy.” Look at the years of headlines positing that orange wine might be “the new rosé” and you’ll get an idea of where we may be headed; meanwhile, the race has begun to identify “the new orange.”
It’s no wonder that some are beginning to reappraise. How many years can orange wine be declared the “drink of the summer,” realistically, before we start to approach parody? And how does wine culture suffer when trends are conflated with taste, like when customers come in asking for “your funkiest orange!” without even glancing at the wine list?
This raises a question: Is orange wine’s “cool” era coming to an end?
An Insider’s View of Orange Wine’s Polarizing Ascent
CW Kelley, sommelier at Dolce Rivera in Dallas, has been in the business long enough to see many hot new styles come and go (and sometimes, return). In the past few years, he says, he and some of his sommelier friends have felt similarly: Orange wine is a trend again? Ugh.
Kelley describes his attitude toward orange wine as a love-hate relationship. “I like the texture it gives the wine,” Kelley says. “The color can also be a beautiful presentation in the glass.” But maceration, he explains, is “a process that requires finesse, and sometimes the outcome is oxidized and has a bitter quality that my palate doesn't appreciate.”
There’s also the simple issue of supply and demand. There’s a lot of orange wine out there now.
“I always encourage people to explore the world of wine, but trendy wines cause havoc to the supply chain,” Kelley notes, winkingly comparing the situation to the so-called Sideways effect (which he found “created a shortage of quality Pinot Noir,” in addition to catching Merlot in the crossfire).
Another factor in orange wine’s polarizing rise is its association with natural wine, an amorphous category that has itself become the subject of some scrutiny. The two aren’t synonymous, but you may have started hearing about them around the same time, and so orange wine, while defined by skin contact alone, became the face of the “natural” scene.
When Jordan Michelman pondered in Bon Appetit a couple years ago whether natural wine was “losing its cool factor”—an inevitable question, as what is cool cannot remain so forever—the seemingly ubiquitous Meinklang orange was offered as compelling evidence.
This overlapping section of the orange wine and natural wine Venn diagram is a big reason that Ariane Resnick, a private chef and certified nutritionist, counts herself among the style’s naysayers. In her experience, “Most orange wines are natural, or at least ‘low intervention,’” she says. “I find it unpalatable. I have met numerous sommeliers who dislike it as strongly as I do.”
For Resnick, the rise of orange wine aggravates a frustration with a broader drift in certain circles toward a funkier, more feral style. “Sulfites and [added] yeast are mainstays nowadays because they create a consistent, delicious product,” she says, lamenting the proliferation of orange bottles that “taste more like kombucha than wine.”
She’s noticed how many new bars in her neighborhood seem to live squarely within this trendy but limited box. How would Resnick describe their intended audience? “Thirty-something hipsters who want to be cool.”
The Democratization of Orange Wine
Troy Bowen, sommelier and owner of Noble Riot, in Denver, admits that orange wines can come with some stereotypes attached, but it’s moving beyond them. “It definitely still signals a certain thing, right?” he says. In the discourse, or on social media, orange wine “is kind of the thing that is tied to hipsterdom, and a certain look or style.”
But Bowen and his customers aren’t too worried about what it might or might not signify. “We sell more orange wine than anything else,” he notes. “And so I’m not in the same camp as, ‘It has seen its day.’ I see that for sure. Other things, pét-nats [for example], are certainly not as popular as they were a couple years ago. But I still feel a lot of interest in orange wine.”
Bowen, for his part, is here for it. “I’m a big fan of it conceptually, and I just love the way it feels on my palate and the way it tastes,” he says. But he also stresses a point that is sometimes lost in the buzz: The flipside of a boom in popularity is that more people are trying something than they were before.
Bowen thinks of orange wine as “kind of a democratizer,” a chance for customers, especially those who might be a little intimidated by the world of wine, to explore what’s out there. If it’s TikTok that gets them there, no problem.
“I'm just so happy that it's a way for guests to kind of find a friend with wine again,” he says. “And the fact that it is a very old style, one that dates back to, possibly, where humans first started enjoying the pleasures of wine, I think just gives it something that other wines don't have.”
The Trend that Never Really Went Away
As always, history provides some perspective. What we now call orange wine is one of the oldest styles there is, with rich traditions in wine regions from Italy to the Caucasus.
Lasha Tsatava, beverage director at New York City’s Chama Mama group, has been glad to see interest increasing; however, she prefers to avoid the “orange wine” term in part because of this history.
“One fear, or potential threat, is getting heritage styles lost under the general umbrella of ‘orange wine,’” Tsatava explains. “Georgians would say our wines are amber wine, not orange wine. And for Georgians, amber wine is not just skin contact wine. There is a cultural heritage that has been preserved for us for eight thousand years.”
As Chama Mama customers increasingly seek out its amber wines, staff are encouraged to spend time explaining the cultural significance to guests. Tsatava has also introduced an amber wine classification system to urge specificity in how we talk about skin contact wines, and founded the nonprofit Saperica to promote understanding of Georgian wine grapes in the United States.
Tsatava compares the nuances to how we talk about food. “‘Cheese bread’ is a broad term, and khachapuri and pizza are both cheese bread,” she says. “But of course, we use other terms to describe them. There is a culture behind them. For me, ‘orange wine’ is that broad term.”
When people are looking for only a certain kind of orange wine—or, for that matter, if the dominance of a certain style prompts them to write off orange wine entirely—maybe we’re due for a change.
Beyond the Orange Wine Buzz
Beverage trends and the buzzwords they rely on can flatten things, pushing something big and dynamic—like skin contact—toward a certain flavor profile, color, signifier and easy thing to latch onto or dismiss. Perhaps that attitude is what will soon be in the rearview. A backlash to a trend can be a good thing, leaving more room for people to find out what they actually like and why. The wines themselves? Well, they’re not going anywhere.
Kelley, despite his own preference for other styles, puts personal tastes aside at the restaurant. (“My wine list is built for guest enjoyment and not my ego,” he says.) He notes that most Dolce Rivera customers who order orange wine don’t come in explicitly asking for it, but instead land on it through a conversation after expressing an interest in trying something new. “I enjoy [the popularity] causing people to ask about and discuss winemaking techniques,” he explains.
A love-hate relationship, after all, means appreciating the good stuff, too. “When I watch guests smile and light up when they taste these wines,” says Kelley, “that’s where the ‘love’ comes from.”
More Orange Wine Coverage
- Orange wine is trending for all the right reasons.
- Eight orange wines we’re loving right now.
- You’ve been drinking orange wine wrong.
- Why is orange wine suddenly everywhere?
- Georgia is famous for its orange wines, but there’s much more to the region.
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