Rodica “Col Fondo” Sparkling Malvasia, Istria, Slovenia 2021

Jeans, cars, music, wine. It's always fun to see trends reemerge. Thousands of years ago, orange wine had a place in every cellar. In fact, for many eons, it was considered white wine. However, as technology changed, skin contact whites fell out of favor. Fortunately, places like Slovenia remained committed to the style using native grape varieties. Malvasia was brought by early traders from Venice, and adapted quickly to the region’s mild Mediterranean climate and limestone soils, developing into a new and unique Malvasia Istriana, which, for a time, became quite popular with the Germans in a blend called Kindermacher (translation: kid maker). 

Fast forward through phylloxera, two world wars, and an economic downturn to 1991 when Slovenia gained its independence from TK, setting the stage for a reinvestment in its storied wine-making culture. A few years later, a car mechanic named Marinko Rodica started making wine in the picturesque hills near Marezige and Truške where the Adriatic breezes play. Certified organic since 2008, Marinko uses dry farming practices. 

In this cuvée, hand-harvested Malvasia Istriana macerates on skins for a couple of days and is aged in acacia wood and stainless steel, and then experiences a secondary fermentation in bottle, leaving behind the spent yeasts or lees. This col fondo style—meaning “on the bottom,” a reference to the lees—results in bubbles that are ocean-suds soft. Already rich in flavor, Malvasia Istriana is even more expressive after a little extra time on the skins, making it perfect for snacks paired with friendly catch-up session on a summer eve. Topics should include: Your new favorite pair of vintage jeans, rediscovering Robyn, and other pasts that have made their way back to the present. —Beth Altenbernd

Craven “Pinot Gris” Stellenbosch, South Africa 2023

Mick and Jeanine Craven met in Sonoma while working harvest in 2007. Wine bug-bit, they decided to travel through Australia, South America, and Europe to learn as much as they possibly could about styles and terroirs before landing in Jeanine’s native South Africa (Mick is Australian). Their goal? Single-vineyard, single variety wines coming solely from the Stellenbosch region. They work closely with their organic growers to express terroir—the essence of the grape, the land, the climate—in each bottle.

The vineyard site for their pinot gris, an unusual grape in South Africa, is in the Polkadraai Hills, known for its maritime climate, allowing for slow-ripening for grapes, which contributes a beautiful intensity and concentration to this “ramato” style. Ramato comes from the word “rame” or “copper” in Italian. In Friuli in northern Italy, pinot grigio aka pinot gris, which has a brown-pink skin, turns a coppery hue when treated with skin contact. Craven’s pinot gris is so deeply hued as to be almost red, resulting from seven days of skin contact, which is a relatively short maceration in comparison to many other orange wines. The result is all salted strawberries and savoury herbal tones with a soft texture that looks like a sunset and pairs well with one too. —Allison Whittinghill

Signoraginni “Vivienne” Tuscany, Italy, 2023

Full disclosure: I don’t always love orange wine. I can tend to be a bit of a classist when it comes to my field, and that’s my own near-sightedness, but I also don’t romanticize Bordeaux. However, I can recognize thoughtfulness in winemaking when it’s jumping out of the glass, and I can appreciate when a wine creates a lens through which to redefine my perception of what skin contact wines can and should be. Enter Giorgia Salernio.

In women, truth is the motto at Signoraginni, located in the picturesque town of Cortona in southern Tuscany. After leaving the fashion industry in Milan, Giorgia studied under Danilo Marcucci of Conestabile della Staffa in Umbria, and moved up the road where she began naturally vinifying indigenous varietals like the 50-50 malvasia and trebbiano Toscano in your glass.  

Where typically these varieites present as a crowd-pleasing, soft and salty vino da tavola, Giorgia has coaxed soaring acidity and palate tingling energy in her Vivienne—named for Vivienne Westwood (also see Jones and Gea). After co-fermenting on the skins for 15 days the wine takes a six month rest in stainless steel, “Vivienne” displays apricot and peach fuzz on the nose. This is not your typical white-flower-honeyed malvasia. Marmalade and lemon zest dance thoughtfully on the palate preceding a snappy, quick finish. Not your introductory skin contact, but a snapshot of the vitality of a young winemaker (only three vintages in) in one of Italy’s most venerable regions. —Drew Clowney

COZs “POP Branco, Macerado, Lisbon, Portugal 2023 

It’s tempting to think of Portuguese wine as a monolith of bold reds and fortified or dessert wines, but history (both present and past) would prove otherwise. Just east of Lisbon in Alentejo, clay pots called talhas have been used to age wines since Roman times. Wines aged in clay (or concrete these days) have a different texture and flavor profile compared to those aged in oak.

COZs Pop ages its Pop Macerado in concrete after a two-day maceration of vital grapes—a cousin of malvasia—nodding to the region’s history. A newer outfit, COZs is collaboration between Tiago Telas and Antonio Marques-da Cruz born as a hat tip to the late Jose Mendonça of Quinta dos Cozinheiros (thus COZs) whose vineyard they revived and made their first vintage from in 2015. The two later bought a vineyard in Serra do Montejunto planted with vital, which is considered a relatively neutral white grape. However, with skin contact, it blooms with notes of green tea, lingering ginger spice, lime cordial, and golden apple skins, while its time in concrete lends a silky, satin-like texture. Orange wines are perfect summer wines for me, golden wine for golden hours. —Cassandra Vachon

Bodega de Forlong “Amigo Imaginario” Andalucia, Spain 2021

Located in the heart of sherry country in Cádiz, Bodega de Forlong is the romantic tale of two winemakers reviving an abandoned plot of land once owned by a British merchant, Peter Furlong. Alejandro Naváerez y Rocío Áspera are farming in pure Albariza soils, or the stark white chalk that translates the wind, salinity, and angular minerality of Andalucia. Palomino grapes are the soul of sherry wines, but are seeing a revival as “vinos de pasto,” literally “pasture wines” referring to the region’s still, unfortified wines. Championed by a group of winemakers that believe still wines can translate the true terroir of the region, vinos de pasto are gaining a foothold with wines from Ramiro Ibañez’s Cota 45 and Forlong, among others.

This is one of the most unusual wines I’ve had the pleasure of encountering in the last year, perhaps underscored by drinking it overlooking the seaside cliffs of Getaria on the coast of Spain’s Iberian peninsula this summer while on a trip with the importer La Luz. In fact, I loved these wines so much, we sold almost the entirety of the entry level Palomino Blanco as soon as I arrived home (we still a bit left, come and get it). This upper tier cuvée, which translates as “imaginary friend,” evokes the beguiling nature of sherry (WE LOVE SHERRY) while being totally unfortified and entirely skin contact. Palomino grapes from the 40- to 50-year-old Platalina vineyard are fermented on the skins for 28 days and then racked into old Oloroso sherry barrels for 18 months, lending the nutty, warmth of aged sherry combined with the electric mineral hum of the chalk soils and palomino acid. A wine that invites the imagination to wander, to wonder, to consider new friends. —Leslie Pariseau