Oregon wine: 2021 Big Salt Orange Rosé

100 cases produced // native yeast

Let’s just address the elephant in the room, orange wines are weird… As it says in the name, this wine is both an orange wine and a rosé. I found the combination oddly strange but also wildly unique– and couldn’t help but like it. Over the years, I’ve been a fan of the regular Big Salt and Ovum Wines in general.

Native yeast hitchhiked into the winery on the grapes from the vineyards and launched the fermentation process. Made up of 50% Pinot gris and 50% Big Salt (a blend of white varietals), the juice was fermented on the skins, becoming the color of a ripe peach. (Pinot gris grapes have a rosy tinge to their skins.) The wine was never fined or filtered before being bottled. I found this orange rosé nicely balanced with some sweetness on the palate.

Ovum’s website literally shouts, in all-caps: THIS IS A RAW WINE THAT IS MEANT TO BE IMMEDIATELY ENJOYED. I would heed their advice since no one really knows how this orange rosé will evolve in the bottle.