Mixed Case Orange Wines
MIXED CASE : ORANGE WINES 8
Each case contains the following wines:
Heinrich Graue Freyheit 2020, Burgenland, Austria. $67
Freyheit means freedom, and signifies Heinrich's natural range of wines. Ceramic bottle. This is a blend of 50% Pinot Blanc, with the remainder Pinot Gris and Chardonnay (with the PB and Chard cofermented). Pours a hazy peach blush hue, thanks to 2 weeks on skins on amphora. Beautifully textural, with sour / crab apple, apricot skin, apricot blossom, meadow grass, elderflower, bergamot. Lovely salinity and energy on the finish.
Vignoble du Rêveur Singulier 2021, Austria, France. $50
Vignoble du Reveur is the project of Mathieu Deiss (who still makes wines for his father's This dry Alsatian orange is a carbonic maceration coferment of Riesling and Pinot Gris, with 10 days on skins prior to a native ferment in large oak barrels, without any additions. The wine aged for one year on fine lees prior to bottling with a very low level of sulfites. Pouring a hazy, deeper orange gold hue, this medium+ orange floods the textural palate with bergamot, pear skin, grapefruit, exotic spices, beeswax, gently framed with buzzy oolong tea tannins. Very complete, this is a stunner.
FitaPreta a Laranja Mecânica NV, Alentejo, Portugal. $30
This is Antonio Maçanita's Clockwork Orange. Arinto, Roupeiro, Verdelho, Antão Vaz, Alincante Branco, Trincadeira-das-Pratas, Fernão Pires make up the Alentejo coferment blend, from various granite-soiled vineyards and vines 15-50 years old. After the first whole bunch pressing, 10-15% of the remaining juice macerated on the skins for a week, and then was pressed again and reunited with the whole, where it native fermented. It remained in stainless on lees until it was bottled, unfiltered, the following fall. Sharpened apricot, Asian pear, anise, and tangerine skeet across the lightly textural palate, livened with a buzzy granitic grip. There's a lovely flow to this angular wine, trailing off with a saline wash.
Loimer Gluegglich NV, Austria. $29
This NV biodynamic orange wine blends Zierfandler, Rotgipfler, Riesling, Chardonnay, Traminer, and Muskateller from sedimentary, limestone gravels, and vines up to 85 years old in the Gumpoldskirchen. This was partial whole cluster native fermented in barrels (some lots on skins) for 8-10 months on full lees. This dry wine was bottled in spring 2022 without fining or filtration, evident in the slight haze to the medium yellow hue. Apricot, peach fuzz, potpourri musk, and potent lime pith run the lightly grippy palate to a tart, light ashen finish. Fun pairing wine.
Olivier Coste Orange Star 2022, Languedoc, France. $22
As you can assume from the name, and the glowing orange hue, Orange Star is an organic skin contact blend of 90% Muscat à Petits Grains and 10% Grenache Gris from their Faugères estate, with 7 days’ maceration before blending and a 6 month stint in stainless. Tight and zippy, with grapefruit, Asian pear and pear blossom before a pithy finish.
Hasjzan Neumann NATURAL Gemischter Satz 2020, Wien, Austria. $54
The grapes for this natural Gemischter Satz come from two old vineyards on the Wiener Nussberg: Ried Weissleiten, and Ried Ulm. The soil of both is comprised of limestone and clay, with a very high chalk component throughout. Gemischter Satz is a traditional field blend from allowable Austrian quality grapes, with a minimum of three grapes. This is a blend of Grüner Veltliner, Welschriesling, Pinot blanc, Riesling, and Traminer, native fermented on skins in concrete eggs with no sulphur or other additions. Post-ferment, it remains in the eggs for more than 5 months, after which it is racked off into neutral 500L barrels where it rested for 6 weeks before bottling unfined and unfiltered. Concentrated and heady, with dried apricot, dried peach, dried blossoms, quince, lychee, lime pith and orange oil, coated with a medicinal white cherry. There's an ample fine grip and a heap of tension to keep this textural, natural, biodynamic orange wine alive to the finish. So much going on in this complexed wine, and it all works.
Price:
6 bottles for $285 + HST, including delivery in GTA, and most larger cities in Ontario.
*prices outside of main cities may incur additional delivery charges.
Estimated delivery time is 3-10 business days.
Please note we cannot process wine orders outside of Ontario. Wine can only be ordered from, and shipped to, an address in Ontario.
What is orange wine?
First off, it’s not about the hue, which really is more amber, and ranges from pale yellow gold to deeper bronze. It’s the process. Orange wines are white wines made like red wines; the juice is fermented with the skins, leaving them in contact from a week up through a year. This gives the wine its characteristic hue, but also a fuller body, higher phenolic content and more tannins and grip on the palate. A better (though less colourful) name would be "skin contact whites". An ancient winemaking technique, these wines are common from areas with lengthy winemaking traditions like Georgia, Slovenia, Croatia and eastern Italy, though are also found from naturalist winemakers around the globe.. Befitting tradition, few, if any, additives are often used, and alternative vessels like amphora and concrete are usually engaged, making orange wines highly prevalent amongst the natural wine set. Orange wines most often are made from aromatic white grapes such as pinot gris, sauvignon blanc, friulano, ribolla gialla and muscat, focusing the honeyed notes, extracting the fragrance of citrus oils and exemplifying the savoury goodness. Nutty, oxidative and salty notes are common descriptors for these compelling wines. The best are light and thrilling, while holding texture and body; an alluring combination.
