As skin contact wines surge in popularity in bars and on supermarket shelves around the world, the term “orange” is blurring the line between an ancient winemaking technique and one of Australia’s most exciting wine regions.
I am going to be controversial here - orange is not a style of wine, it is a wine region.
Calling a wine ‘orange’ is not only confusing, it is lazy and misleading.
And to set the record straight, I have nothing against skin contact (or ‘orange’) wine, in fact one of my favourite Pinot Gris (coincidently from Orange, the wine region) is a skin contact wine - I actively seek out the style at wine bars, the winemaking process fascinates me, and the wines are usually delicious.
But being a passionate, (even if unofficial) ambassador of one of the most exciting wine regions in Australia – Orange – using the name of a town to describe a wine style muddies the waters for both consumers and the trade. Yes, it may be easier to call a wine by a colour for the consumer and it looks neat on a wine list if you collate your wines by colour - so before I start to argue my way to the bottom of a wine barrel, let’s take a step back and compare the two against each other – 'orange' the wine style, and Orange, the wine region.
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What is Skin Contact (or ‘orange’) Wine?
This style of wine demands huge respect, as one of the oldest styles of wines in the world. Even though it all feels rather trendy today, skin contact wine is ancient, its origins stretch back around 6,000 years to Georgia, where wines were fermented naturally, without additives, usually in large buried earthenware amphorae (qvevri), sealed by flagstones and beeswax.
How is skin contact wine made?
Basically it's a white wine made like a red wine, with white grapes crushed and left in contact with the juice during winemaking for an extended period. The skins are where the colour, structure, and complexity of the wine mainly come from, deepened further through slow fermentation and gentle oxidation.
Unlike modern white winemaking, where skins are quickly removed before fermentation, this extended maceration can last anything from a few hours to a number of days or even months, with the aim to extract colour (creating amber-coloured tones), tannins (for structure), phenolics (for complexity), and aromatic compounds (for more intense flavours).
Today, fermentation for skin contact wines typically use wild yeasts in neutral vessels such as clay amphorae, concrete, or old oak, allowing for a slow oxidative process.
What is skin contact wine like?
Colour, (being our main bugbear here) of the wines can range from pale gold to brown, deep amber, copper, salmon or pink, and yes, even orange, depending on the grape variety, maceration time, and oxygen exposure.
Flavour profiles can span from conventional to more funky ‘natural’ notes – such as honey, bruised apple, dried fruit, along with cider and even hoppy beer-flavours on the palate.
Because of their structure, acidity and generally lower alcohol levels, skin-contact wines pair well with food, especially spicy and fermented dishes, as well as a wide range of cheeses.
Today’s skin-contact wines
While the technique never disappeared from Georgia, it faded in other regions as modern white winemaking processes evolved. It’s only in the last 30 years or so that skin contact wines re-emerged on wine lists, inspired by Georgia, led by producers in north eastern Italy and Slovenia, and often made from indigenous varieties like Ribolla Gialla, Rkatsiteli, Friulano, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Grigio.
The key turning point came in the 1990s when Italian winemaker, Josko Gravner, inspired by Georgia’s qvevri tradition, explored skin-contact wine production in Friuli. Today a global revival is led by renowned producers such as Pheasant’s Tears, Radikon, COS, amongst others.
Up until this time, the style was called 'skin contact' or 'amber wine'. It was only in 2004, that the term “orange wine” was coined by British wine importer David A. Harvey, in an attempt to bring visibility to the style. Why is it always the Brits?
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Orange - the wine region
Around four hours’ drive west of Sydney in New South Wales - Orange, at 600m to 1200m above sea level, is a cool-climate viticulture area, officially designated as an Australian wine region in 1996.
Agriculture dates back to the 1860s, with table grapes planted in the area in the 1920s. Modern commercial winemaking began in 1980 with apple and cherry tree farms making way for vineyards, planted initially with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Sauvignon Blanc.
Today, the region is home to more than 1200 hectares of vines, over 80 vineyards and 40 cellar doors, led primarily by artisanal producers focused on premium cool climate styles of still and traditional method sparkling wines.
Why is Orange important?
To carry the Orange name on a bottle, grapes must be grown in the region at 600 metres (1,969 feet) above sea level or higher - a defining benchmark that sets the region apart in the Australian wine scene. As a side note - fewer than 1% of the country’s vineyards reach this altitude, making Orange something of a rarity: a cool-climate maverick of a region where altitude shapes the style in the glass.
Set in the shadow of the ancient volcano Mount Canobolas, today Orange is one of Australia’s highest wine regions. A variety of altitudes, aspects and diverse soil types create a patchwork of microclimates for its vines, allowing a diverse range of more than 25 grape varieties to thrive, from French and German classics to Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek. Summers are generally mild to moderate, with temperatures rarely climbing above 32°C, while cool to very cool nights preserve acidity and phenolic balance - creating a long, dry growing season that quietly shapes wines with precision, elegance and complexity.
The result means Orange is home to a wide range of wine styles - stills, sparklings, single varietals and blends, including skin contact wines - all very much on-trend with today’s discerning wine consumers, looking for naturally fresh, delicate yet complex, lower-alcohol wines with fine tannins.
The region has also become a magnet for some of Australia’s most influential winemakers, including Philip Shaw, formerly chief winemaker at Rosemount Estate and twice winner of IWSCs Winemaker of the Year (1986 and 2000), widely credited for helping to shape the modern Australian Chardonnay style; William Rikard-Bell, Young Gun of Wine 2025 Finalist (Winemaker Awards), and Nadja Wallington of Chalou Wines, another finalist in the Young Gun of Wine Awards in 2022, alongside a wave of enigmatic producers attracted by its cool-climate potential.
This appeal has translated into national and international recognition for the region, such as Printhie Wines, awarded Best Australian Sparkling Wine for its Swift 2011 Blanc de Blancs at the 2022 Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships in London; and See Saw Wines who consistently win Best Organic Wine in NSW; and Philip Shaw Wines’ multiple Decanter World Wine Awards.
As one of Australia’s youngest wine regions, Orange buzzes with a spirit of quiet confidence and experimentation, with producers united by low-intervention winemaking and sustainability. This ethos is reinforced by a growing community of organic and biodynamic growers and winemakers, from See Saw, Tamburlaine Organic Wines and Macquariedale Organic Wines to Ross Hill Wines.
The town of Orange, widely regarded as one of NSW’s leading dining destinations, is home to around 70 wine bars, restaurants and pubs – and whether you pop into a pub or one of its fine dining restaurants, you’ll find wine lists flowing over with local wine producers. This is a serious wine town, and everyone here know that what grows together goes together.
While Australia (and in particular NSW) does not incorporate Michelin stars yet, Orange and the region is home to several restaurants recognised with Good Food Guide “hats,” anchoring its growing reputation as a food-and-wine hub drawing more than one million visitors every year. Not bad for a town of just 42,000 residents.
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My case against calling skin contact wines ‘orange’
Having taken everything into account, here are my (personal) thoughts on the terminology of orange as a wine style versus Orange as a wine region:
History
Skin contact winemaking is an ancient wine style that should be respected. If anything, follow what the home of skin contact wine, Georgia, calls it - Amber wine.
Skin contact wine is not just one style, it can be made conventionally, naturally, oxidatively or reductively, with different grape varieties and across multiple wine regions. Calling it a unified ‘orange' dilutes what it is, and implies a homogenous style, which it is far from.
The term ‘orange’ wine was coined in 2004, by David A. Harvey – Orange, the wine region has been growing grapes since the 1920s, producing wine commercially since 1980, and was designated as an official wine region GI in 1996. Let’s do the maths.
The colour
Orange wines are not always orange; they can be any colour from pink, to brown to amber, and everything in between.
It’s lazy terminology
I understand for the trade, a colour is easier to explain than a process, but this is a skin contact wine style, let’s call it what it is and create a narrative around it – just as we do for organic, biodynamic or natural wines. Let’s prioritise education and storytelling over easy marketing terminology. Wine lists will be all the more interesting because of it.
It confuses consumers
The term ‘orange wine’ can suggest a flavour profile rather than a production method. I’ve heard consumers ask if oranges are added to the wine when I serve them skin contact wines called orange wines. The second most common question is whether orange is the name of a grape variety. Both are obviously incorrect and can be very confusing.
As we know, wines are traditionally classified by colour (red, white, rosé), by method (for example, sparkling, fortified) and by origin (appellation, GI). The style of 'orange' wine sits between colour and method, which does not really fit traditional classifications, again creating confusion.
Focus on one name, rather than many
Different producers and regions use different terminology for skin contact wines – such as skin contact, orange, and amber wine or ramato meaning ‘copper’ in Italy, amongst the key names.
Wine from Orange is based on terroir
Orange wine (from the wine region in Australia) is based on a wide region, and its wine can be many styles - calling a bottle a wine from Orange is akin to calling a bottle a wine from the Barossa, conjuring up various grape varieties and styles.
Skin contact wines can be a bit marmite
Not everyone likes ‘orange’ wines, especially the more unpredictable oxidated styles, and it’s potentially giving the real Orange wine region a bad rap.
To capitalise or not to capitalise?
Can we at least give the name of the region some respect by allowing it to have a capital O for Orange, and use a lower case for 'orange' wines when we refer to style?
To conclude….
I wonder, just as a few European wine regions have done, is there an opportunity to trademark the name 'Orange' as a wine region? Yes, the region is a protected GI under wine labelling laws, however at this moment in time it’s not a standard ‘trademark’ that prevents others from using the word orange with regards to wine. According to my research online, from a legal perspective the likelihood of a successful trademark suit depends on whether a reasonable consumer would be confused what an 'orange' wine on the bottle refers to.
I refer back to the fourth point above.
OK, I may be pushing my luck trying to spearhead the biggest rebrand of a wine style this decade - If we don’t want to go down the obvious route of calling 'orange wine' it by its actual style – skin contact wine – and prefer to stick to a colour, can we call it ‘amber’ (what Georgia, the home of skin contact wines call it), or I'll throw another colour in the ring, if we are sticking colour - what about the more elevated ‘Gold’ wine – you never know, it could attract a whole new audience of wine drinkers.
Orange is a wine region very much in an upward swing, and this momentum is only likely to speed up as climate change reshapes where - and how – grapes and wine can be successfully grown and made. Australian winemakers are being pushed to venture higher, go further south, or diversify their viticultural choices, placing cool-climate regions like Orange in an increasingly exciting position.
With this, I anticipate we'll see more wines from Orange on shelves, lists and cellars in the years ahead – so how will that work on your wine lists if you have a section for ‘orange’ wines and a regional section for Orange wines?
The result (for me at least) is clear, the future is Orange with a capital O.
Let’s give the style the respect it deserves and the wine region the recognition it needs.
I’d be keen to hear from retailers and sommeliers on their views on ‘orange’ for skin-contact wine and what, if anything, they feel this ancient style could more accurately or effectively be called, marketed or sold as versus its namesake of a wine region.