Channing Daughters 2016 Ramato, Pinot Grigio Orange Wine, Long Island

Ramato is a special skin-fermented white wine, or what many are now calling "orange" wines. Ramato refers to the old Friulian-style of fermenting Pinot Grigio on its skins, thus creating a coppery-colored wine. All the Pinot Grigio fruit (from both their home farm in Bridgehampton and the Mudd West Vineyard on the North Fork) for Ramato was hand-picked, handled minimally, fermented on its skins (with wild /ambient yeast) in small bins (for 13-16 days) and raised in older French and Slovenian oak for eight months.

Not only is the wine alluring and delicious to smell and taste but Ramato possesses an absolutely gorgeous color to admire...somewhere between deep electric orange and copper. There are aromas and flavors of honey, brown spices, dried apricots, pear skin, tropical citrus, baked apples, coriander and peaches. The wine has balanced acidity, only 12% alcohol, medium-plus body and great persistence of flavor on the finish. This dry, exotic, textured and aromatic wine falls somewhere between a white and a red but does not fit neatly into the pink category. Lightly spiced and earthy foods will work marvelously with this wine.