Who doesn’t love a little skin contact?

Are you Orange Wine-Curious?

This evening will be a fine opportunity to explore this old-is-new wine category. Orange wines are usually made from white-skinned grape varieties, but during vinification the juice is left on the skins for an extended period of time. This gives the finished wines a deeper color - sometimes quite literally orange - as well as some of the texture more typical of a red wine. In our experience orange wines can be quite delicious, with a range of flavors not found in a wine made from the same vines in a more conventional manner. It is also true, however, that some orange wines are organoleptic train wrecks, usually because the producer paid insufficient attention to spoilage risks during production. We promise no train wrecks tonight!

In addition to the three skin contact offerings, we will be pouring 2 other old-is-new wines. A sparkling wine from Beaujolais, made using the ancestral method – the oldest method for producing sparkling wine, also called Pétillant naturel or pet nat. The other wine is a red blend made using native fermentation, minimal so2, neutral oak and ambient temperatures.

Merchants of Thirst, in their own words - "Based in San Francisco, California with a strong connection to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, Merchants of Thirst imports and distributes fine wine and spirits throughout California. Our passion draws us to family-owned boutique producers, whose wines represent a sense of place (terroir) and are produced with the bare minimum of intervention both in the field and in the cellar. Our extensive professional background in wine, retail and hospitality allows us to offer a curated and service-oriented approach to wine and spirits distribution."

Ian Adams from Merchants of Thirst will walk us though this selection.

The flight will include:

• N.V. Chateau Cambon 'Cambon Petnat', Beaujolais, France. Retail $24.50
• 2020 Domaine du Haut-Planty Melon de Bourgogne, 'One Musk a Night', France. Retail $25
• 2022 De la Soif 'L'Innatenou' Orange Wine, California. Retail $24.50
• 2022 Ellsworth Skin Contact Chardonnay, Penn Valley, California. Retail $27
• 2022 De la Soif 'La Soif Rouge' Red Wine, Tehama County, California. Retail $24.50