WHAT IS NATURAL WINE? 

In recent years there has been a movement toward making wines more like our ancestors, avoiding the monotony of conventional and industrial winemaking.  Natural wine is a type of wine usually made in small batches, from hand-harvested organic or biodynamic grapes with minimal intervention in the cellar.   Using naturally forming yeasts, fermentation happens spontaneously, not induced.  If sulfur is used, it is used sparingly and only as a preservative.  Natural wines may look different than most commercial wines, sometimes exhibiting cloudiness and sediment. That's because they are not filtered or fined.  Natural wine producers often work with local and indigenous grape varieties. Sometimes clay amphoras are used, continuing ancient techniques.  This is rudimentary winemaking, not too different than the way the Romans made wine 2,000 years ago.

WHAT ARE ORANGE WINES?

Orange wines are essentially white wines made in the manner of red wines. Typically, when white wines are made, grape skins are removed for fermentation.  Orange wines (aka skin contact wines) are fermented with their grape skins and often on their lees. This often gives the wines an orange color and a more tannic structure, bringing out more pronounced flavors.