Orange wine, also known as skin-contact white wine, skin-fermented white wine, or amber wine,[1] is a type of wine made from white wine grapes where the grape skins are not removed but stay in contact with the juice for days or even months, as is more typical with red wines.[2] This contrasts with conventional white wine production, which involves crushing the grapes and quickly moving the juice off the skins into the fermentation vessel. The skins contain color pigment, phenols and tannins that would normally be considered undesirable for white wines, while for red wines skin contact and maceration is a vital part of the winemaking process that gives red wine its color, flavor, and texture.[3]
The International Organisation of Vine and Wine describes orange/amber wine as "White wine with maceration" and prescribes the minimum duration of the maceration phase to be 1 month.