The first time I gave Greg an orange wine to try things did not go well. We were at DBGB in NYC and I picked a wine I thought was cool and that I also thought would pair well with their amazing sausages. It did pair well — I stand by that! — but Greg also said that “it smelled like a foot.” He had a point. I had thrown him in at the deep end of the orange wine pool.

It took a while before I got him to try another orange wine. He viewed them with skepticism for a very long time, but eventually, I got him to come back to give them another shot. Therefore, I fully appreciate that they’re not for everyone, they can be an acquired taste, and that the wrong one can really turn people off. The right one though will introduce you to a whole new world of different wine flavors!

One of the first times I can recall Greg really liking an orange wine was during a dinner party at our place with our friends Ron and John. One of them brought a bottle of Kabaj Rebula (I actually shared this experience very early on in the blog here) and that became one of the wines to really undo the damage I’d done with that first super funky-town orange wine.

I’ve since sold this wine often. Customers would come in curious for an introduction to this category of wines. My experience with Greg had taught me to ask people where they’d like to begin with these wines. There’s a full spectrum out there. In other words, do you want to wade into the orange wine pool gently, or do you just want to jump right in cannon-ball style?  If this bottle was in stock, I’d always offer it up as a favorite because it strikes a happy medium: It definitely gives you a good introduction to what orange wine is all about, but it’s still clean, elegant, and approachable.

SO WHAT IS ORANGE WINE ANYWAYS?

Let’s take a step back. I realize I kinda got ahead of myself and you might be wondering what orange wine actually is. Orange or amber wines are also (and perhaps more accurately) referred to as skin-contact or skin-fermented whites. (There's a little bit of technical distinction for "skin-fermented" whites, but not going to dig into it now.)

They’re basically white wines that are made like red wines. Generally speaking, wines get their color from their skins, as the pulp and juice (with a few very rare exceptions) is always clear. Red wines are left in contact with the skins to get their hue, where the juice for white wines is generally pressed off straight away, so it stays relatively light in color. 

The juice for orange wines comes from white grapes, but it’s allowed to stay in contact with the skins for a few days or even months, and so develops a deeper hue than your average white wines. Rosé wines, by contrast, are made from red grapes but the juice is only left in contact with the skins briefly, and so they don’t develop a lot of color. I should note that you can make a white wine from red grapes as well if you press the juice right off and allow no contact with the skins. A common example of this can be found in Blanc de Noir ("white from black") sparkling wines.

Along with the deeper color, the juice for orange wines also extracts tannin and deeper flavor notes from the skins, so the wines also gain structural components similar to red wine – altogether, they often have very different flavor sensations than one might be used to. In addition, some orange wines are made in an oxidative style through which the gain nutty notes. In many areas where the style is traditional, the wines are often aged in qvevri (as is common in Georgia) or in amphora.  Depending on how long the wine spends in contact with skins and how it is made, orange wines can develop a whole range of flavors and come in many different styles that can range from just slightly more textured than your average white wine, to extremely bold with hints of exotic spices, deep fruits, nuts, and sometimes notes similar to sour beer. There are so many different versions out there nowadays, that it’s worth exploring a few options to get a sense of styles.

THE WINE & PAIRING

The Kabaj Winery is the product of a love story. French winemaker Jean Michel Morel met Katja Kabaj (pronounced "Kah - bye") and they fell in love. Once married, they decided to start making and bottling their own wines, rather than selling off the grapes. They’re reputation for quality wines quickly grew.

They have 15 hectares of vineyards near the village of Dobrovo in Slovenia. All of the white wines they make see at least some skin contact and are aged in barrel for at least two years.

Map borrowed from Think Slovenia.

Slovenia is nearly landlocked except for a very tiny sliver, but the wine region of Goriska Brda (pronunciation here, sometime referred to as just Brda) in which Dobrovo is located sees climatic effects from the sea, as well as from the hilly terrain it’s surrounded by as it’s at the foot of Julian Alps. The area is really a continuum of the same terrain as Friuli-Venezia Giulia which is just on the other side of the border with Italy. The town of Gorsika (one of the two towns that give the region its name) is along this border are actually essentially cut in half by it, and my understanding is that quite a few wineries have vineyards on both sides.

It’s supposed to be a gorgeous area and I’ve heard the food and hospitality are wonderful. In addition to the winery, Kabaj also has rooms where you can stay and they serve delicious looking meals as well. We were actually considering potentially traveling to Slovenia as part of a big trip we were planning for this year, but sadly that will now have to wait of course. *SIGH* I’ll continue to dream away by clicking around their website, waiting for the day when we can all travel again.

Image borrowed from Kabaj's website.

In the meantime, drinking the wines is a nice way to help keep dreaming about it. Rebula (as it is known here, but aka Ribola and Ribolla Gialla) is typical of this region, as well as of Friuli-Venezia Giulia where it has been known since at least 1296. It’s the most widely planted grape of any color in Goriska Brda. You don’t see it much elsewhere, but it has devotees here in California. (We’ve previously explored one of those here.) It tends to show fruit notes of peach, citrus and apples, with light hints of flowers. In orange/skin-contact version, all of these become deeper. 




On the day we opened the Kabaj Rebula Goriska Brda 2015 Greg and I  picked up notes of dried yellow fruits, tangerine, marigolds, cloves, bruised apples, and floral notes that reminded me of the perfume Sunflowers that I used to wear in highschool. On the palate, there was orange peel, dried apricots, hay, dried flowers, white pepper, and light exotic spices. It was full bodied, with medium acid, and had a little bit of perceptible tannin. There is no mistaking that this is an orange/skin-contact wine as it pours out a beautiful copper color.

It’s definitely worth decanting this wine as it smoothes and rounds out quite a bit with air. The edges that are there when you first open it up soften up, relax, and the whole wine becomes more friendly.

Orange wines usually can stand up pretty well to more robust foods with lots of flavors, but there’s also a good amount of earthiness to them. I decided to play with these components of earth and spice and created a braised chicken thigh dish with lentils flavored with a wonderful mushroom escabeche. 



I discovered a recipe for Mushroom in Escabeche with Ham in José Andrés from Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America at some point last year and we just fell in love with it. 





An escabeche is just a dish that’s been prepared in an acidic mixture, usually vinegar, and typically is flavored with either pimenton (Spanish paprika) or saffron. This preparation is also really a confit, as the mushrooms are cooked submerged in olive oil, which in turn preserves. I now make big batches of it to keep on hand as it lasts quite a long in the fridge – I can’t tell you exactly how long, but I’ve never had them go bad. It does use a lot of olive oil, but that oil becomes deliciously flavored and can be reused to make the next batch of mushrooms or in other cooking. 


It’s really easy and while it’s incredibly delicious served with jamón serrano as it’s presented in the book, I've taken to using it so many different ways. I love to use it to cook or top chicken, as I’ve done here, as well as pork and other vegetables. 

The food and wine made a beautiful match! The wine becomes even more elegant and picks up the notes the spice notes in the food, particularly the clove. The fruit also came out to play in lovely way that made the wine all the more friendly. Greg’s reaction: “F*cking Delicious!”

OTHER POSSIBILITIES

Orange wines are a good option for dishes where you’re not quite sure what to pair with them. Maybe the dish straddles lines of flavor and texture in ways that make it a little tricky –– well, these wines are basically straddling similar lines as well. They’re often great pairings for intensely flavored food with that use lots of spices, or that have earthy or fermented flavors: Moroccan Tagines, Ethiopian food, and Korean foods flavored with kimchi.

As for other wines to pair with this dish, deeper and full bodied white wines should work well here as well, or earthier rosés like this one. Light to medium reds would potentially be good partners as well; while the vinegar in the dish has the potential to make wine flavors turn sour, there isn’t too much and it should be somewhat balanced by the richness of the lentils.

THE GEEKY DETAILS

I couldn’t find much of a tech sheet, but just a short snippet on their website.

Grape variety: 100% Rebula
Harvest: manual, the second part of September
Vinification: 30 days in 2,400 liter oak barrels
Aging/maturing: 24 months in 225-liter oak barrels (French oak) and an additional 6 months in bottle.
Alcohol content: 13%

MONEY TALK

The average price on this wine is $32, with about a $10 spread in prices. I believe I paid $29 for my bottle and I think that’s a Solid Value for a bottle that’s well made and provides a little bit of adventure from your dining table.