Skerk Ograde 2018 (Orange Wine)

Ograde Skerk, organic, natural Orange wine from the Carso, pink in hue, zesty, complex and savoury: absolutely delicious. Ograde is an orange wine made of Vitovska, Malvasia, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio. Macerated on the skins, the wine extracts colour from the Pinot Grigio to give it an orange hue. The nose has complex aromas of red orange, grapefruit, light raspberry and geranium, white currants and a touch of red pepper and wet moss. Unfiltered and fermented in oak, the wine has a richness and creaminess yet is filled with mandarin orange fruit, toasty almonds and minerals, the acidity is high maintaining the wine’s freshness and elegance. For high quality orange wine making not unlike the incredible wines of Josko Gravner, you have to try Ograde.

Sandi Skerk took over from his Father Boris, like many in the Carso, their production is very small, totally natural and involves skin contact with indigenous white varieties.

Friuli is a veritable feast of natural, artisan wine production where orange wines are the norm and wild yeasts used without question. Sandi produces some of the regions best, delicious textural wines with great personality, plenty of depth and friendly richness which them more approachable than some of the wines of his contemporaries. This might be due to the fact that Sandi uses oak for fermentation and ageing rather than concrete or Amphoras. This softens the wines and adds a touch of luxury creaminess to the texture. His are orange wines but not in the extreme. The Vitovska is more of a skin contact white rather than orange being deep gold in colour and without the heavy tannin of full blown orange. Ograde on the other hand, you feel more of the skin and the colour is certainly more orange, rusty than gold. The superb Malvasia is somewhere in the middle. Orange or not, Skerk's wines are simply delicious so buy em and drink em!