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Italian Food, Wine and Travel Takes a Second Lap Around Italy
Wow, our Italian Food, Wine and Travel blogging group (#ItalianFWT on Twitter) has completed our first lap around Italy. Did you know that every one of Italy’s twenty regions produces wine?  Our group has explored each region firsthand and we’re all excited to continue, and we hope you’ll join us!  On our second lap, we can open up to some creative challenges.

This month, the challenge is to find and try a skin-fermented white wine (a.k.a. “orange” wine) from somewhere in Italy. Since we like to stay open to food and travel, we’re also inviting bloggers to share a secret food or place in either Friuli-Venezia Giulia or Sicily, both regions are known producers of skin-fermented wines.

Skin-fermented white wine, a.k.a “orange”

What’s an Orange Wine?
200 years ago, skin-fermented white wines would have a different name: wine.  At one time, white wines  were fermented just like red wines. Grapes were harvested and put into a container, crushed by foot and left to ferment.  In some cases, the fermenting must was put into large earthenware pots and the whole mess was left undisturbed until months later. Then, winemakers discovered techniques to produce a new, fresh style of wine which separated the juice from the skins and grape solids immediately, and white wine as we know it today was developed. Today there are a number Italian winegrowers who have returned to those earlier methods to re-discover the charms of these traditional wines.

“Orange” Wines are Not Just Hipster Sommelier Candy!
These winemakers have been producing orange wines for years, but in the last few years, they have been discovered, and are now popular in the media, though controversial. The colors, aromas and flavors are very different from typical white, rosé or red wines. So come along and join as our Italian Food Wine & Travel group explores skin-fermented white wines, a.k.a. orange wines from Italy!

Preview of What’s to Come
Join us this Saturday, July 2 at 10am CDT on Twitter at #ItalianFWT to chat about skin-fermented white wines from Italy. Here is a preview of what’s to come from our Italian blogging group:

• David at Cooking Chat will share “Bressan Pinot Grigio: Tasting an Orange Wine”
• Martin at ENOFYLZ Wine Blog will share “Caspri Luna Blu and Grilled Moroccan Chicken”
• Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla will share “Piattino di Polpo e Patate with Skerk’s Malvasia”
• Jennifer at Vino Travels will share “There is Red and White, but Orange Wines too?”
• Mike at Undiscovered Italy will share “Gray Matters”
• Jill at L’Occasion will share “What Your Madre Never Told You About Orange Wine“
• Christy at Confessions of a Culinary Diva will share “The Aperitivo Hour with Orange Wine & Walnut Pesto”
• Michelle at Rockin Red Blog will share  “What Color is Your Wine? Mine May Be Orange“
• Li at The Wining Hour will share “The Road to Orange Wine in Umbria”
• Jeff at FoodWineClick will share “Orange Duck, Orange Wine”

Friuli-Venezia Giulia is one of the main regions for orange wines

Pique’d my interest, a wine produced for the Convent in Lazio.

Several Sicilian winegrowers make skin-fermented white wines.

Santa Chiara Umbrian “Bianco”

Sometimes they look similar to a typical white wine, although fermented on the skins.

You don’t see this every day: skin-fermented sparkling Malvasia!

Look at that color!