Monaco Bianco 2019, Conestabile della Staffa 11.5%

Dry, light, layers of stone fruits, pears, spice, zesty finish. 750ml

Orange wines have been made for centuries in eastern European countries like Georgia and more recently by celebrated winemakers such as Josko Gravner on the Slovenia/Italy border. These old-school orange wines often undergo a prolonged time on grape skins as well as amphorae ageing, which in the best examples, can lead to tannic, complex wines with multiple layers of flavour. But in the worst examples, they can also lead to one note, overly tannic wines that are very high in alcohol and taste predominantly of grape skin. Enter winemaker Danilo Marcucci, who is creating a new school of thought for skin-contact winemaking in his region, one of light skin time and low alcohol to preserve the freshness of the white grapes and not drown out the terroir. This orange is made from three different local variants of Trebbiano, all ‘massal selection’ vines - so, the best of the best fruit on the vineyard. Just 10 days of skin-contact to create some texture and depth. This is skin-contact wine Danilo’s way: restrained, fruity, mineral and not so big in flavour you can only enjoy one glass. A new lighter style of orange wine to emerge from Umbria and a style we reckon will only get more popular every year.