This is another successful orange wine. It is difficult to wax lyrical about it when it tastes pretty much the same as every vintage made. The wine is sharp, clear and has the expected citrus taste. I think it drier than 2019's batch, but that is neither a good nor a bad thing. We drank it mostly whilst making a spinach & bacon quiche - I was in charge of the pastry and Claire the filling. We were meant to save some for the Saturday Night Snarkalong (Cowboys and Aliens) but the bottle was empty by then. The film wasn't nearly as camp as the title suggested, and that was a disappointment. We switched it off half way through and made our way to bed.
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| A Hebe in our garden |
If you want to see how this wine was made, click here.
Hi Ben, I've been reading your blog for years, very inspiring! Would you say you've perfected the orange wine now? What yeast do you use? I've just made 20ltrs of orange and 5 ltrs of tangerine, this is the first year I've boiled and discarded the zest, I usually throw it in with the juice, which can result in a bitter aftertaste. My first attempt tasted exactly like a cheap whiskey, subsequent ones have been better, but as we have 30 odd citrus trees, I feel I ought to persevere
ReplyDeleteHello - and thank you very much for sending me a message. My Statcounter tells me you are from Portugal - a country I have never visited but would love to.
DeleteOrange wine is a consistent one for me: there isn't ever that much variety in flavour or sharpness to it. It is one of my better white wines and one that I make every year. 2021's batch is currently in its bucket, and I will probably blog about that on Saturday or Sunday. I find it odd that it always tastes the same - because I have used large oranges producing far more juice in some years and small oranges in others. (2021 is a 'large orange year' and I think 2019 was too.) But the taste doesn't vary as much as I would expect.
There is a slight bitter taste to my orange wine - but one that I think adds to the overall flavour, making it more interesting. It gives it a 'marmalade' taste.
I'd love to have citrus trees, but alas - being in Northern England is not conducive. We do have quite a lot of other fruit trees, however - so I will stick to those. Keep on going with whatever you are doing, and best of luck with it!
Ben
Thanks Ben, yes I'm in Central Portugal. The bizarre thing is I usually use oranges from the same few navel orange trees for my wine and it tastes different every year, I guess it depends on a lot of factors, weather affects size, sweetness and picking time. I certainly will keep at it, and thanks for all the inspiration
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