Amber Wines Are The Hot Drop You Need In Your Glass This Summer

If you've ever been torn between knocking back a nice, rich glass of red or a crisp, refreshing glass of white, there's a delicious drop that can satisfy both tastes (and it's not rose). Amber wine (or orange wine as it's sometimes confusingly called) is tantalising the taste buds of vinophiles the world over and Australia boasts some of the best bottles on the market.

What is it?

It might be easier to explain what Amber or Orange wine isn't. Its production doesn't involve any citrus at all, nor is its name making reference to the vineyards of Orange in NSW's west. It gets its title, like its more established cousins, from its distinctive honeyed hue. Known as a "macerated wine", it's pressed with the skins of the grape left on for a more intense, full-bodied flavour, similar in depth to a light red. While not all natural or biodynamic wines are orange, most amber and orange wines are produced with organic thinking, without the use of certain common preservative methods, like the addition of sulphur or custom yeasts.

Why should we drink it?

Amber wine is fast becoming the hot drop wine experts are raving about, but ironically, rather than being a new innovation in wine production, these orange-hued beauties are ancestral varieties, dating back more than 8000 years. The introduction of modern winemaking techniques has helped troubleshoot some of the issues with acidity and spoiling that caused amber wines to fall from favour. Now their popularity is most definitely on the up, with bottles available at most good boutique bottle-os. Among amber wines biggest fans is celebrity super-cook Nigella Lawson, and if it's good enough for her...

Who makes it?

A number of top Aussie wineries are turning out some top-shelf bottles of this amber nectar, including Cullen Wines in the Wilyabrup region of Western Australia on the Margaret River, Shobbrook Wines in South Australia, Born and Raised Wines on the eastern fringes of Melbourne in Plumpton and acclaimed winemaker Patrick Sullivan in the Yarra Valley, Victoria.