Orange wine is white wine made like red: the white grapes ferment together with their skins for a few days up to several months. The skin contact gives amber colour, tannin and a grippy, firm structure that sets orange wine apart from a conventional white. The tannin makes orange wine a good food wine, for example with spiced stews, mushrooms and aged cheeses. Each bottle ships directly from the producer.
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The colour in orange wine comes entirely from the grape skins. White grapes — Ribolla Gialla, Pinot Grigio, Grenache Gris, Malvasia, and many others — are left in contact with their skins during fermentation rather than pressed off immediately. The longer that contact, the deeper the amber and the firmer the tannin. A few days gives a pale, lightly textured wine; several weeks or months gives something closer to a light red in structure. Wines tasted before listing.
29 of 29 wines
285,20SEK
278,07SEK
405,72SEK
654,00SEK
313,95SEK
313,95SEK
402,84SEK
375,24SEK
270,82SEK
270,82SEK
“Full-bodied with complex oxidative notes. Rich in vegetal and citrus notes. Serve it chilled and let it breathe so you can fully enjoy the flavours dancing on your tongue.”
Umberto Galli ZugaroWine Expert · 5 ratings
285,20SEK
Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the neighbouring Slovenian border have been home to skin-contact white winemaking for decades — producers here work with Ribolla Gialla and Friulano in long macerations, often in large oak vessels or clay amphorae. Georgia's Kakheti region ferments in buried qvevri, the clay vessels that have been used for thousands of years, producing some of the most tannic and structured orange wines available. Both regions appear in the Free Grape Society catalogue. Free Grape Society is a society of producers, independent experts, and wine lovers — not a shop.
Independent wine experts review orange wines they have personally tasted. Several of the experts listed on this page have reviewed skin-contact wines featured in the catalogue. Their notes cover colour depth, tannin level, and the aromatic profile that develops when white grapes spend time on their skins — often dried fruit, beeswax, bruised apple, and a savoury, oxidative edge. On Free Grape Society, producers ship each bottle directly from their own cellar, with no importer or warehouse in between.
Orange wine sits between white and red in structure: it has the grape varieties of a white but the texture and grip of a light red. That makes it unusually versatile with food — the tannin cuts through fat and the acidity stays high. Pair it with aged and semi-hard cheeses, charcuterie, roasted root vegetables, or dishes with fermented or umami-led flavours. Avoid very delicate white-fish preparations, where the tannin can overpower. The right match depends on the specific wine's maceration length and grape — ask a wine expert for a recommendation suited to what you are cooking.
Orange wine is white wine fermented together with the grape skins, the same way red wine is made. The skin contact lasts from a few days to several months and gives the wine amber colour, tannin and a grippier, firmer structure than a conventional white. The method is thousands of years old in Georgia and was revived in Friuli and Slovenia in the 1990s.
The tannin and structure let orange wine handle food that is often hard for white wine: spiced stews, root vegetables, mushrooms, aged cheeses and dishes from Georgia and the Middle East. Lighter orange wines with short skin contact suit fish and chicken.
Browse the cases on this page, select the one you want, and place your order. The case ships directly from the producer's own cellar. You will receive a shipping confirmation once it leaves the estate. Cases are available as a one-time purchase; delivery typically takes 4–14 days depending on the producer's location.
Send a photo to Free Grape Society customer support within 7 days of delivery. We will arrange a replacement or a refund. Because producers ship directly, quality issues are handled with the producer's direct involvement. Shared responsibility is built into how FGS works.
Each case is a curated selection of bottles from a single producer, grouped to show the range of their skin-contact whites — different grape varieties, varying maceration lengths, or wines from different vintages. The case page shows exactly which wines are included, their grapes, regions, and any available tasting notes before you buy.
Average delivery is 8 to 9 days from order to door. The full range is 4 to 14 days depending on the producer's location and your delivery address. Wines ship directly from the producer's cellar, not from a central warehouse.
Start with maceration length: shorter skin contact (a few days) gives lighter colour, less tannin, and a fresher style. Longer maceration produces deeper colour, more grip, and a richer texture. If you know a region you enjoy — Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the Loire, Alsace — filter by country or region to narrow down. You can also browse individual orange wines at [/SE/en/wines/color/orange] to get a sense of a producer's style before committing to a case.
Producers who sell on Free Grape Society build their own cases from wines they make. The cases here reflect what each estate produces — there is no house blend or generic selection. You buy directly from the grower, so the case you receive is the producer's own bottling, shipped from their cellar. Wines tasted before listing.
Independent wine experts on Free Grape Society review wines they have personally tasted and publish their notes on wine and producer pages. To get a personal recommendation for an orange wine case, fill in the form on the expert's page — ask your question and they will respond directly. Never a consultation booking: use the Ask a wine expert form.
The cases on Free Grape Society come from independent producers who grow their own grapes and make their own wine. Supermarket-label orange wines are typically produced at scale by large négociants or contract facilities, with no direct link between the estate and the bottle. Here, the grower who made the wine is the same person who packed and shipped your case.
Yes. Cases ship directly from the producer's cellar to your address in Sweden. Systembolaget carries a small number of orange wines, but the range is limited by the monopoly's buying process. On Free Grape Society, producers list their own wines, so you can access smaller-production skin-contact whites that are never available through retail channels.
Orange wine is not a separate grape color. It is a white wine made using red wine technique: the juice ferments in contact with the grape skins. That skin contact extracts phenolic compounds — tannins, pigments, and structural elements — that conventional white wine production deliberately avoids. Maceration can run from 24 hours to several months. The longer the contact, the deeper the amber color and the firmer the tannic grip. Producers in Friuli Venezia Giulia were central to the modern revival of the style in the 1990s, though the method itself is thousands of years old. Georgian winemakers fermented white grapes on their skins in clay vessels called qvevri long before the term "orange wine" existed. Today the style appears across Italy, France, Austria, Spain, and Greece, made from a wide range of white grapes. The result is not a single flavor profile — a 48-hour skin-contact Pinot Gris is structurally different from a six-month qvevri maceration. What they share is more texture and oxidative complexity than conventional whites.
Aromatic and phenolically rich white grapes tend to perform best with extended skin contact. In Friuli Venezia Giulia and across the border in Slovenia, Ribolla Gialla is the dominant variety for skin-contact production. Pinot Gris — already a deeply pigmented grape — produces orange wines with pronounced copper tones and substantial structure. Grenache Blanc appears in skin-contact versions from Languedoc-Roussillon and Rhône Valley producers working outside conventional appellation rules. In Alsace, some producers apply skin contact to Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer. Godello and indigenous Basque varieties are used by Spanish producers experimenting with the format. Grüner Veltliner on skins appears from Austrian producers in Burgenland and Niederösterreich. The grape matters less than the decision of how long it stays on its skins — and that decision is entirely the producer's.
Orange wines are not labeled by law in most producing countries. There is no protected term, no appellation category, and no minimum skin-contact requirement. A bottle labeled "skin contact" or "macerated white" may have spent 12 hours or 12 months on skins. Some producers note maceration time on the back label; most do not. Color is the most visible signal: pale amber to deep amber-orange. Tannin is the structural signal: orange wines have detectable tannin that conventional whites lack, which affects how they pair with food and how they age. Bottles from producers who use whole-cluster maceration in sealed vessels tend to be more reductive and savory. Producers working in open-top vessels with pump-overs often produce more oxidative styles. The white wines on Free Grape Society sit alongside these skin-contact bottles — the difference in method is documented at the producer level. No importer, no wholesaler. The price you see is the price the producer agreed to.
