Hot Seat with Sam

Orange, amber or skin contact white wines—they’re a super unique style! It’s the interplay between texture, acidity and interesting new flavours that I find really alluring. They take the mundane characters of their normal white counterparts, and go deeper into their unique flavour profiles. It’s also a whole category of wine that is relatively unexplored, so we get to experiment to find what varieties work best... Unbroken ground, how cool is that!

“Honestly? A lot of people think orange wine is bad because they’ve had a bad one. There’s also this assumption that orange wine automatically means natural wine—which just isn’t true.

There are incredible orange wines being made both inside and outside the natural wine world. At its best, it’s simply a beautiful, textural style that unlocks a whole different side of white grapes.

Like any category, there are poorly made examples out there—but when it’s done well, orange wine can be one of the most exciting wines to drink.”

“Muscat is probably my favourite variety to ferment on skins. It’s naturally so aromatic, but skin contact gives it this incredible structure and weight—something that’s usually provided by the residual sugar in more traditional Muscat styles.”

Mexican food! Finally, there’s a wine to go with Mexican, and it’s not spelled b-e-e-r or margarita.

"If you want that true amber colour, they need time in the cellar. 5-10 years should do the trick, but they do start picking up those sherry-esque characters—that just makes them even better in my opinion."