The last decade has seen the explosion of the rosé wine industry worldwide, but orange wines are the next frontier. And one of France’s most renowned winemakers has made it his mission to make orange wines go mainstream. Gérard Bertrand, a former professional rugby player, transitioned into the world of wine after taking over his family’s estate following his father’s death. Over the last 35 years, he has become a leading figure in the Languedoc-Roussillon wine region in southern France, championing sustainable practices like organic and biodynamic winemaking. His ambition has grown his holdings to 17 estates, spanning more than 900 hectares of vines, making him one of France’s largest independent winemakers.
“My father was a leader in the wine industry; he was the first to believe in the region in the south of France in the 1970s. I started to do my first harvest in 1975, when I was 10 years old. And at the end of the harvest, my father said to me, ‘You know, you’re lucky because when you are 60, you will have 50 years of experience,’” Bertrand tells Observer. “And now I’m 59, and I have already done 14 vintages, and during the same time, I already played rugby, as well.”
And given Bertrand’s recent dedication to orange wines, he isn’t even close to done yet.
If you’re not already familiar with orange wines, you’re not alone, but that won’t be the case for long. Orange wines are made from white grapes, but with extended skin contact during fermentation, resulting in a unique, deep orange-hue and flavor profile. Winemakers macerate the grapes alongside their solid parts—namely the skins, seeds and stems—for a period ranging from a few days to several months.
This method, though considered trendy now, is actually an ancient technique with roots dating back more than 4,500 years in the country of Georgia, often referred to as the birthplace of wine. In those times, traditionally, grapes were not pressed before fermentation. Instead, the Georgians let the wines macerate in buried amphora (clay pots), called Kyevris. This unique winemaking technique eventually spread to the rest of Europe, first inspiring the winemakers in present-day northern Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. Today, orange wine continues to be produced in Europe, as well as many other parts of the world, including the United States, New Zealand, Australia and France.
Bertrand is an admirer of this ancestral winemaking method. In particular, he loves the structure of this skin contact wine made with white grapes using red winemaking methods, which gives the wine some tannic qualities, among other things.
“I wanted to pay tribute to these people because they created a new category,” Bertrand explains. “And it was also amusing for me to try to make a rebirth of orange wine with less bitterness, and also less tannins, in order to have to create wines for drinking, not only for tasting.”
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