Our 2023 Orange Fraîche is a Nouveau-style orange wine using skin-contact fermented Riesling from Washington’s Columbia Valley.

Orange-style wines are produced by fermenting white wine grapes in contact with the grape skins (and, in our case, the whole clusters including the stems as well). Nouveau-style wines are fresh, fruit-forward young wines that are released in the same year they are harvested. Classically, lighter bodied red wines like Pinot Noir and Gamay Noir have been the stars of the show when it comes to Nouveau-style wines, but we feel that there’s a lot of room to showcase other varietals and styles soon after harvest.

The tannins extracted from the time on the skins and whole clusters give our orange style wines a body and mouthfeel similar to a lighter bodied red, while the typical acid-forward style of our Riesling brings a zesty, citrus packed punch that makes this the perfect year-round wine. It’s the ‘swiss army knife’ of food pairing wines thanks to that combination of additional body and bright acidity. 2023 was another long year, but our Orange Fraiche is proof that there is still much to celebrate as we closed the books on our 9th harvest at RAM Cellars.

As far as tasting notes, cantaloupe, lemongrass, fresh snow, tangerine, & jasmine greet the nose, while elderflower, lemon balm, candied orange peel, starfruit, lemon hard candy, fresh oranges, & a hint of limestone await in glass. Like a spring sunset fading into tangerine dreams or straw spun into gold, it surprises and delights.

The incredible label art for this wine was once again crafted by our dear friend Rhett Bennick, whose work you can check out at https://www.rhett-illustrates.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/rhett_illustrates.

Cheers, from our table to yours!

Viv & Team RAM Cellars

Crafted with a blend of fruit from:
South Hill Vineyards
Underwood Mountain
Columbia Valley, Washington State
&
Crowe Vineyards
Benton City
Columbia Valley, Washington State

650 cases produced