Other Wines: Sparkling, Rose, and Orange Wine

Look deeper for some other styles of wines that don't fall neatly into the red and white categories. Here you'll find Roses, Sparkling Wines, Orange Wines, and off the beaten path styles that won't easily be classified.

Sparkling wines are thought to originate from Northern France in the Champagne region, however it was the English love for these slightly sparkling wines that really began to examine exactly why champagne would sparkle. In a paper published in 1662 by the English Scientist Christopher Merret discovered that by adding a little bit of sugar before bottling, virtually any wine could be made to sparkle. This sugar, or dosage, is what gives the yeast some fuel for them to consume when they re-activate and thus re-ferment the wine already in the bottle, producing the carbon dioxide necessary for a sparkling wine. To learn more about what goes into the method traditionelle, subscribe to our newsletter and get a complimentary 15-minute consultation with one of our sommeliers!

Rose's can be made in four primary ways. First, is through maceration. Maceration is the most common method for producing a high quality rose, and entails allowing the juice to remain in contact with the grape skins to absorb pigmentation from red grapes for a period of time, anywhere from six hours to two days. The longer the skin contact, the deeper the color. Method two is through the direct press method, where grapes are pressed as soon as they enter the winery, resulting in very minimial skin contact. The result is a very light, and delicate rose. Third would be the Saignee (san-yay) method, which translated to "bleeding" In the Saignee method a small amount of juice that was destined for red wine production is bled off the main vessels and vinified seperately as the rose. The result is a richer, deeper colored rose, as well as a more concentrated red wine. Finally, the blending method which is commonly practiced in the production of Brut Rose in Champagne, is quite simply the blending of a bit of red wine into white wine near the end of the production process.

Orange Wine originally hails from the ancient winemaking traditions of Georgia. At it's most basic level, an orange wine is essentially a white wine that has been produced with extensive skin contact, very similar to how red wines are vinified. The result is a slightly deeper pigmentation, as well as more tannic structure and body that what is normally found in a white wine. Orange wines can vary greatly in stylistic representation, from very funky with a lot of barnyard character to clean and citrus driven. Orange wine is being produced around the country now, but can be mostly found in northern Italy, and America.