Orange wine has stopped being the wild card on the list and become a category all of its own — white grapes left to hang out with their skins, sometimes for days, sometimes for months, picking up colour, grip and a whole new personality along the way. No two bottles taste alike, which is exactly the point.
Here's our current top picks, almost all built around Alsace producers with a couple of detours to Austria and Slovenia.
Alsace Hespéridé Gewurtztraminer - Achillée - 2023
Achillée's Gewurztraminer from granite and gravel soils in Alsace, given a stretch of skin contact and no added sulfur. Expect the grape's signature lychee-and-rose perfume pushed into fuller, more textured territory — aromatic, medium-weight and unmistakably Gewurztraminer.
Orange - Pépin
A blend built around Gewurztraminer, Auxerrois, Muscat and Sylvaner from Pépin in Alsace, made without added sulfur and aged without wood. Deep amber colour, a wide aromatic spread from the Gewurztraminer and Muscat, and a soft, easy-drinking texture that makes this a great entry point into the style.
Alsace macéré - Achillée - 2022/23
A field blend of Alsace grapes from Achillée, grown across granite, clay and limestone and left to macerate on their skins with no added sulfur. Herbal and citrus-driven with a distinct lemon-thyme note running through it — a savoury, texture-forward orange wine that shows exactly what field-blend maceration can do.
Riesling Delight - Weingut Sven Leiner - 2021
Sven Leiner's Riesling from clay soils in the Pfalz, made clean and without added sulfur. Here it gets a place on the orange list for its extra bit of skin contact — bright acidity meets a touch of grip, giving classic Riesling a little more texture than usual.
Safari - Weingut Schödl
Schödl's Grüner Veltliner from Weinviertel, Austria, aged partly in wood. Mild and herbal with the peppery backbone Grüner is known for, given extra depth and a slightly savoury edge by its time on skins.
Ribca - Butul - 2017
Butul's Malvasia from Primorska, Slovenia, aged in wood — a producer with deep roots in Slovenia's skin-contact tradition. Waxy, textured and a little wild, this is a genuine natural-wine cult classic from one of the region's most respected names.
