Orange wine is one of the most misunderstood categories in wine. It's not orange-flavoured. It's not made from oranges. It's not new — it's actually the oldest way humans have made wine, dating back to Georgian qvevri fermentation over 8,000 years ago. Here's what it actually is, how it's made, and which of ours to start with.
★ The Traynor Orange Lineup ★
Tap a bottle to shop — or read on for the full story.
What is orange wine?
Orange wine is white wine that has been fermented on the skins — the same way red wine is made.
That's it. That's the whole difference.
The colour comes from the skins of the white grapes leaching pigment, tannin, and structural compounds into the juice during fermentation. Depending on the grape variety and how long the juice sits on the skins, you get anything from a light gold to a deep amber to a bronze-orange colour. Hence the name.
Some people call it skin-contact wine or amber wine, which are more accurate descriptions. "Orange wine" won the naming battle because it's more memorable.
★ The 8,000-year receipt
The oldest known wine residue on earth was found in a Georgian qvevri (clay vessel) dating to about 6000 BC. That wine? Skin-contact. Orange wine isn't a natural-wine fad — it's the original way humans made wine.
Why do this at all?
Two reasons.
Skin contact gives a wine tannin and grip. White wines made the conventional way are almost entirely acid and fruit. Skin-contact whites feel more like a red — they can pair with heavier food, they age longer, they have texture on the palate.
Some white grapes (Vidal, Chardonnay, Riesling) develop entirely different flavour profiles when fermented on the skins. Instead of citrus and stone fruit, you get honey, dried apricot, tea, orange peel, and a slight nuttiness. A wholly different expression of the same grape.
The 5-step process
Here's what happens between vineyard and bottle. We'll use our own process at Traynor as the walkthrough, but any producer making orange wine follows the same general shape.
Step 1 — Harvest
White grapes at ripeness. Nothing unusual here. You want ripe fruit with good acid retention.
For our orange wines (5th Element, Marmalade Pie, Inclusion Orange), we harvest by hand from family farms in Prince Edward County and Niagara — see our natural wine page for more on our fruit sourcing.
Step 2 — Crush
The grapes get destemmed and gently crushed. This releases the juice but keeps the skins intact.
For an orange wine, we deliberately want the skins to stay whole — we don't want to macerate too aggressively at this stage, because we'll be sitting on those skins for weeks. Blown-up, fragmented skins would give us harsh tannin, not integrated structure.
Step 3 — Skin contact (this is the whole game)
The crushed grapes — juice AND skins together — go into an open-top fermentation vessel. Native yeast on the skins starts the fermentation. And now the important part: we leave everything together for days to weeks.
How long is the skin contact?
- Light (3–7 days) — wine picks up some colour and light tannin. Feels like a "richer white."
- Medium (7–21 days) — real orange colour, structural tannin, aromatic complexity. Most of ours live here.
- Long (30+ days) — deep amber, chewy tannin, wildly different aromatics. This is where things get weird and interesting.
Fifth Element gets around 12 days on the skins; Marmalade Pie gets closer to 20; Inclusion Orange varies year to year.
Never had an orange wine? Our 5th Element is the entry point — medium skin contact, honey and apricot, easy grip. If this doesn't hook you, none of them will.
Shop 5th Element →Step 4 — Press
Once we like where the wine is — colour, tannin, aromatic — we press the wine off the skins. A basket press does this gently, squeezing the remaining liquid out without crushing the skins into pulp.
The pressed wine goes into a neutral vessel to finish fermentation and settle. In our case, that's stainless steel or a neutral old oak vessel that doesn't contribute new flavour.
Step 5 — Bottle
Native yeast finishes the fermentation. We add a small dose of sulfur at bottling for stability (or zero, for pet-nats). The wine is bottled unfiltered — some sediment is a feature, not a flaw.
That's it. From the vineyard to the bottle, nothing has been added except a tiny bit of sulfur. No cultivated yeast, no acid correction, no colour adjustment, no filtration.
What does orange wine taste like?
That's the thing that surprises people. It doesn't taste like a white wine plus tannin. It tastes like an entirely new category of wine.
★ Common flavours in orange wine ★
orange peel
tea
almond, roasted seed
ripe pear
on the finish
The texture is different too. There's a grip to orange wine that whites don't have. It's why it pairs so well with food that a normal white would struggle with.
★ What to eat with orange wine ★
crispy skin on
real spice, no fear
hard, sharp, nutty
cured, salty, fatty
roasted, umami-rich
Thanksgiving MVP
Our orange wines — where to start
All three follow the same principles: native yeast, no additives, unfiltered. They just differ in how long the juice sat on the skins.
5th Element
~12 days skin contact. Our entry-level orange — rich but approachable. Honey, apricot, and a light tannin grip. If you've never tried orange wine, start here.
Shop 5th Element →
Marmalade Pie
~20 days skin contact. Deeper colour, more grip. The name isn't a joke — it drinks like marmalade, roasted stone fruit, and pie crust.
Shop Marmalade Pie →
Inclusion Orange
Variable skin contact. A blend of white grapes with extended skin contact. The most textural of the three — this is the one that turns skeptics into converts.
Shop Inclusion Orange →Frequently asked
Does orange wine contain oranges?
No. Not even a little. The name comes from the amber-orange colour that develops during skin-contact fermentation.
How is orange wine different from natural wine?
"Orange wine" describes a style — white grapes fermented on the skins. "Natural wine" describes an approach — minimal intervention, native yeast, no additives, low sulfite. An orange wine can be natural, or it can be made with a heavier hand. All Traynor orange wines are natural — see our natural wine philosophy.
How long does skin contact take?
Anywhere from a few days to over a month. Most orange wines sit on the skins for 1–3 weeks, which is enough to develop colour, tannin, and complexity without over-extracting.
Is orange wine an acquired taste?
Sort of, but not as much as people expect. The first sip is unfamiliar — it's a texture and aroma profile most people haven't had before. By the second glass, most people are on board. It's the wine equivalent of natural cider or a good hazy IPA — once you get it, you get it.
How long can I age orange wine?
Longer than a normal white. The tannin gives it structural longevity — good orange wines can age 5–10 years. That said, most of ours are built for drinking in the first 3 years.
Should I decant orange wine?
No. Same rule as any natural wine — pour and drink. Decanting can flatten out the aromatics.
What temperature should I serve it at?
Cooler than a red but warmer than a white. Around 12–14°C is the sweet spot. If you serve it too cold, the aromatics disappear. Too warm, the tannin gets aggressive.
★ Ready to try an orange wine? ★
Start with the skin-contact collection
Free shipping across Ontario on orders over $200. Ships direct from our cellar in Hillier.
Shop the collection →Our natural wine philosophy →
