£9.95, The Wine Society
If you like the idea of orange wines but have found the flavours a bit challenging, or have been waiting to dip a toe in the orange/amber water, try this. It's an authentic example, made from the obscure white Kisi grape variety fermented with the grape skins in qvevri (pointed-bottom clay jars buried in the ground), but it doesn't have the astringent shock of some Georgian orange wines.
I loved its inviting dried-flower, apples-in-the-attic, orange peel and walnut aromas, the downy peach-skin texture, hints of green tea and fresh fino sherry and its approachable, airy tannins; so it came as a surprise to see how polarised the response to it has been by the small handful of Wine Society members who have reviewed it online. But if an orange wine isn't polarising, it probably isn't doing its job.
I also like the fact that Didebuli's Kisi doesn't demand food, unlike a lot of traditional orange wines, but at the same time it's convincingly food-friendly. Try it out on meaty sausages, including chorizo and duck, or grilled lamb cutlets, miso-roast veg or herby, spicy bean and lentil dishes. 12%
Didebuli Orange Kisi 2020, Kakheti, Georgia
£9.95, The Wine Society