ORANGE features a selection of macerations which invigorate and excite. Offering examples so filigree and fine they could be classified as genre-defying, alongside those with enough flesh and grip to stand up to the most robust of cooking, few wines are as versatile on the table as these.
YANNICK MECKERT
Stupeur et Tremblements 2024
Alsace, France
Gewürztraminer from vines up to fifty years old planted over clay and limestone in Obernai. It is a blend of the warm, dry 2023 vintage with the cold, wet 2024. In both years, the grapes fermented as whole bunches for a week, before being pressed to a century-old foudre for élevage. They were blended in the summer of 2025, along with a touch of Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir, resulting in a wine quite unlike any we have tried. It pours a kind of Poulsard-pink, and curiously, the lead variety’s telltale aromatics are dialled back a little, with blood orange bitters and a dusting of spice taking centre stage.
Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir
LE COSTE
Bianco 2022
Lazio, Italy
Mostly Procanico with the balance being made up of Malvasia, Roscetto, Pedino, Vermentino, Romanesco and Ansonica from vineyards young and old. From a cooler vintage, this saw a shorter maceration of just five days, before being pressed off to old casks for a year of élevage. A hazy shade of amber, this is wonderfully light on its feet, with heady notes of citrus, smoke and minerals offering refreshment in spades.
Procanico, Malvasia, Roscetto, Pedino, Vermentino, Romanesco, Ansonica
GAZZETTA
Bianco Trilli 2024
Lazio, Italy
Roughly equal parts of Trebbiano and Procanico from forty year old vines in Bolsena. The wine fermented on the skins for four days, before being pressed to vats until the following spring. A gorgeous shade of gold, its plush tannins frame pure flavours of mirabella and minerals, making for a complex wine full of intrigue.
Trebbiano, Procanico