A fine Orange Wine, Chile.

Luis Felipe Edwards Macerao Semillon, 2021, D.O. Valle de Colchagua (Chile 🇨🇱) 12.5% ABV.

We drank this refreshing and hugely interesting orange wine on Sunday in Dundee's @winepressbar. The next day I had to go and purchase a bottle from @aitkenwines_1874 to bring back to Edinburgh with me for another occasion! ~£11.

Orange wine is essentially white wine that has been left to macerate or ferment with their skins left on. Unlike most white wines, in which the juice is pressed from the grapes, those white wines are left in contact with the skins, sometimes the stems too, in whole bunch fermentation, will impart a darker colouring to the wine (from colour compounds found in skin) - hence this beautiful golden wine colour.

Grape skin also contains aroma compounds, aroma precursors and tannins. This can mean the skin contact whites, or orange in this case, express different notes from the grape, compared with if it were just the juice (pulp of grape), such as spicy more ripened fruit taste. Sometimes less aromatic and fruity, although in the case of this wine, it achieves:

Floral 🌸 peach 🍑, delicate apricot and spice 🫚.

The vintage is a few years old, and I can't work out if the spicy notes are coming from the slightest of aging or the grape itself. I'm going to probably say mainly the grape on its skins and the wild fermentation (wild yeasts often natural to the vineyard or region) method used, which will impart unique flavours to the wine.

This is an unfiltered wine, and you can visibly see the slightest bit of sediment, but it's not cloudy and definitely not funky. Remarkable achievement considering this is all natural. It tastes exceptionally fresh (with med acidity) too.

The tannins are smooth, so I didn't get that overtime drying sensation.

As I fleetingly mentioned, this is is 100% Semillon (grape). You might recognise this grape from the sweet wine of Sauternes (blended alongside Sauvignon blanc and Muscadelle).