Orange Wine

Tasting Notes

Coming Soon

Winemaking Notes

The first vintage of Abel Mendoza Orange Wine was 2020 and came about as pure chance. Abel and Maite had major mildew problems in 2020 due to warm and wet weather throughout the summer. Per their farming methodology, they refused to use chemical treatments to prevent or rectify such issues. As a result, there was a lot of damage in the vineyard and they decided not to pick a large portion of their white grapes.

At the end of the harvest, they revisited the still-hanging grapes and found certain plots that had decent fruit. They had been considering producing an orange wine for a while and were now presented the perfect opportunity to test it.

Crafted in the style of a red wine, whole clusters were placed into an open-top stainless steel tank, inoculated using a splash of already-fermenting white wine from another tank and left to begin fermentation. After a few days, the clusters are foot-stomped and the wine is left on the skins and stems to finish fermentation for roughly two weeks. It's then pressed and bottled. No sulfur is added at any point.

The 2020 vintage was released in partnership with a friend of Abel and Maite and under a different label. Enjoying the wine and the reception from their customers, Abel and Maite approached the 2021 vintage more deliberately and this is the first vintage under Abel Mendoza branding.

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