Gérard Bertrand’s Orange Wine Project is a Fine One

Vin de France, how I appreciate thee. You let winemakers focus on grapes no matter their provenance (the fruit, not the winemakers). You are young — VDF as a national classification was born in 2009 — and your potential is immense. You’ve been a great addition to a proud and prestigious legacy, and I think you will mature into a fine individual.

Chardonnay, grenache blanc, viognier, marsanne, mauzac, muscat, and clairette. They are all in this bottle. And skins and whole clusters are used. It’s an orange wine, from Gérard Bertrand, and I opened it yesterday and loved it. It has a suggested retail price of $24.99, and you can search for it here or wherever you like to buy your wine.

The 2023 Orange Gold, a project that sings of the Mediterranean, offers peach, apricot, jasmine, and white pepper as entry points, and those aromatics carry on when one drinks this wine. Your palate might pick up on the notes of apricot and peaches, as mine did, along with a hint of oxidation that is intriguing. Body is medium to medium-plus, while the finish is long and fairly complex.

Bertrand sought to pay homage to the history of Georgian orange wines, and I think this one aced that assignment.

I paired this with a frisée salad whose stars were slices of goat cheese battered with egg and panko before frying and pieces of pears macerated in balsamic vinegar. This wine would also be great with a goat curry dish or a tray of your favorite cheeses.

Pay no attention to the hype and trendiness of orange wine; it’s been around a long time, and will outlast us all. It deserves better than hype.