Three Italian Orange Wines, Three Extraordinary Tales

Orange wine is often talked about as one big category—but in truth, it's a world unto itself. Orange wines (white grapes fermented on their skins) can be many things: breezy and bright, savory and textural, or deep and meditative.
 
Today, we want to share with you three Italian oranges we absolutely adore. Each tells a completely different story. From the textured elegance of Emilia-Romagna, to the breezy energy of Sicily, to the deep structure of Friuli, they represent the kind of regional diversity and personality that make Italian orange wine so compelling—and so criminally overlooked.

Tre Monti Vitalba Albana In Anfora 2023 - Emilia-Romagna

Vitalba, from Tre Monti in Emilia-Romagna, is one of those bottles we couldn’t keep quiet about. It’s seriously delicious—distinctive, textured, and honestly, unlike anything else we’ve opened lately. Made from Albana, a golden-skinned grape few outside Italy may know, the wine comes from a single organically farmed vineyard in Imola. Fermentation takes place in 470-liter Georgian amphorae buried underground, with 70 to 120 days of skin contact, followed by ten months of aging in the same vessels. Only 2,500 bottles are produced each year.

What’s in the glass is rich but fresh—stone fruit, dried yellow flowers, savory herbs—layered, warm, and mouthwatering, with a long, clean finish. Vitalba shows how complex and graceful orange wine can be when made with intention and patience.

Fuso ‘Cala’ Terre Siciliane 2023 – Sicily

If Vitalba is orange wine in full focus, Cala is its relaxed, sun-drenched cousin. Made by Dario Serrentino of Mortellito in southeastern Sicily, this is a skin-contact expression of 100% Catarratto that’s bright, slightly hazy, and easy to love. Fermented with native yeasts and bottled unfiltered, it brings citrus zest, peach skin, and wild herbs, with a lightly grippy texture that never overreaches. It’s casual but expressive, full of salty charm and freshness. It’s no wonder that Cala often wins the hearts of people who think they don’t like orange wines.

Gravner Ribolla Gialla 2015 – Friuli-Venezia Giulia

At the other end of the spectrum is the legendary Gravner, whose name is synonymous with the modern revival of orange wine. The 2015 Ribolla Gialla, from a warm vintage, spent months on the skins in buried amphorae, then aged for over six years in large oak casks before bottling.

Now nearly a decade old, it’s powerful and meditative: orange peel, dried apricot, tamarind, beeswax, incense. The texture is dense yet composed, with a mineral backbone and a slow, resonant finish. This isn’t orange wine as trend—it’s Gravner’s lifelong pursuit of purity and depth, and a singular expression of what this category can become with age and vision.
 
We hope you enjoy discovering these uniquely expressive wines as much as we have. Each bottle has a distinct voice, a sense of place, and a story worth savoring.