Our wine club have travelled across the globe in the comfort of our homes with a glass of wine in hand to assist. This week we started in Austria and were told we were trying a wine made with their most popular grape, Gruner Veltliner. We’d sampled this before and expected a dry white with hints of lime, lemon and grapefruit. The wine, called Orange, was a surprise to the palate. It’s a pretty colour (not bright orange) and rich, spicy and complex. Eaten with some smoked cheese, we really began to appreciate this new wine. Then we learnt, it wasn’t new. Orange winemaking hails from ancient traditions with these techniques used as far back as 5,000 years ago in what is now Georgia. Originally, orange wines fermented in large buried earthenware amphorae called Qvevri (“Kev-ree”) which were closed with flagstones and sealed with beeswax. There were no additives, not even yeast. During fermentation, the wine is exposed to lots of oxygen which morphs fresh fruit and flower aromas into aromas like bruised apple and honey. Over time, wines taste nutty.
BEWI wine club thoroughly enjoyed the evening, sampling 4 wines with, possibly, Von den Terrassen being the favourite.
