Les Grands Vins Oranges: rare, high-end wines

Grands Vins Oranges are the rare, high-end wines in your wine cellar! A Grand Vin Orange will stir emotions when you taste it.

Indeed, its mastery, elegance and prestige reflect the sustained attention that a Grand Vin Orange receives during its production.

For this reason, Gérard Bertrand's Grands Vins Oranges require a combination of patience and prestigious ancestral know-how.

What makes a high-end wine is also the history that goes with it. The château, the vineyards, and the winery are also part of the renown of these rare wines. Orange wines were born in Antiquity and in Georgia.

Brought up to date, they are more than just a fad and offer surprising flavors that absolutely must be discovered. Just immerse yourself in the amber color, light, bright and limpid orange of a Grand Vin Orange, to succumb to its charm.

Grands Vins Oranges: the pleasure of the aromas of a prestigious wine

A great wine is a wine that touches the sensitive side of the Being. It sends shivers down the taster's spine, surprised by so many emotions. The Grands Vins Oranges are among those prestigious wines that touch on something timeless, immeasurable, making the heart race.

The aromas of a Grand Vin Orange

Not only does its luminous orange color leave no one indifferent, but tasting a Grand Vin Orange at maturity is a good way to ensure a truly wonderful experience. Its fresh, fruity, and floral aromas are primary aromas that, over time, reveal secondary and tertiary aromas.

Thus, aromas with spicy and fruity notes of floral fragrances give way to a harmonious bouquet with citrus zest, offering aromas atypical of those detected in classic wines.

The character of the white grape varieties of the Grands Vins Oranges

Each wine region has its own preferred grape varieties for making its orange wines. At Gérard Bertrand , the precious grape varieties of Chardonnay, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Marsanne, Mauzac, Muscat, Roussanne, Vermentino, Sauvignon Blanc and Colombard each have their own character.

It is therefore a question of understanding the typicality of each one and also their growth, as well as their evolution according to each vintage. Everything is meticulously selected to obtain prestigious blends intended for a high-end orange wine .

Consideration of the terroir of high-end rare wines

A Grand Vin Orange is the product of ancestral know-how. Where the terroir finds its full expression. The vine roots are nourished by complex soils rich in minerals, providing the right nutrients to the grapes.

Also, at Gérard Bertrand, our Grands Vins Oranges are produced on protected soils to preserve the fauna and flora while strengthening the intrinsic noble identity of our Languedoc-Roussillon terroirs. So, the climate, the geology and the exposure of the vines enrich the aromatic complexity of our high-end orange wines.

Grands Vins Oranges: the pleasure of savoring an exceptional wine

A Grand Vin Orange stands out from the constraints of oenology with its grace and magic. This kind of wine is remembered for a lifetime. It transcends our senses and our memories. Even more so when you're a professional taster. It's disconcerting, with the offering of its very frank aromas on the nose.

And its chiseled flavors, both raw and cuddly, in the mouth which are sewn together by the relief of the tannins . It is the kind of wine that takes all the cells of our body on a journey to a very distant past.

Orange wine: a macerated white wine

While orange wine is produced with white grape varieties , it is vinified like a red wine. Be careful, it is not to be compared with a white wine , nor a red wine and even less with a rosé wine . Orange wine has the particularity of undergoing skin maceration during its vinification like red wines.

This way, the phenolic compounds in white grapes are better extracted, releasing coloring matter and tannins contained in the skins of the grape berries. Some cellar masters choose not to push this maceration too far to preserve a little acidity.

In this case, the fermentation process begins with whole bunches of grapes, destemmed or not, just like the vinification of red wine. Orange wine can easily be produced without sulfites.

Grands Vins Oranges: aged in barrels and amphorae

From one year to the next, the climatic conditions of the vintage vary. This shapes the development of the grapes. To make a Grand Vin Orange , the vintage counts. The healthier the grapes, the better the orange wine. Once fermentation is complete, some orange wine producers decide to push the maceration even further.

While others prefer to press the musts halfway through fermentation and transfer them to barrels and amphorae to be aged naturally . This is the case of our Cuvée en Biodynamique Villa Soleilla . Then, our prestigious orange wine continues its ageing in amphorae for 8 months until it is bottled.

The very fine porosity of the terracotta amphora provides regular oxygenation and rounds out the tannins. In addition, orange wines are said to be natural , meaning that no oenological products are added, not even sulfites. Indeed, the extraction of polyphenols from the skin naturally protects the wine from oxidation.

Great Orange Wines and luxury food and wine pairings

The rarity and quality of Grands Vins Oranges raise questions about their tasting. Any occasion is a good one to uncork a bottle of orange wine to please yourself and your guests. That said, before tasting Grands Vins Oranges , a theoretical introduction to the method of producing this type of wine is recommended. These rare, quality wines are complex. Even though orange wine pairs wonderfully with dishes with pronounced flavors, the powerful aromatic precursors it contains release a range of notes of linden, citrus, apples, spices, tea, honey on herbaceous fragrances mixed with toast.

So it pairs divinely with caviar for absolute luxury without risking distorting the delicate aromas of the caviar, while deploying in a very pleasant bitterness, a hint of salinity. For this luxury food and wine pairing , the 2021 vintage of our Grand Vin Orange Villa Soleilla is excellent.
Other tasty pairings include Mediterranean octopus carpaccio with citrus fruits or skate wing with pepper and saffron sauce, which will reveal very complex flavors with exceptional persistence.
For an ode to the sweetness of Italian cuisine , the black truffle ham and truffle spaghetti are enhanced by the 2020 Villa Soleilla vintage .
When it comes to cheese , orange wines shine, as they are highly recommended for Comté, Parmesan, Salers, and even Mimolette. However, with raw goat's milk cheese, the pairing is absolutely splendid.