8 best orange wines to raise a glass to this summer

Based in Herefordshire, Brook House Farm is usually found making cider and perries, with this bottle being its debut into the winemaking world – and what an entrance it is. 

The team have retained the experimental style they use so well in cider-making, transferring it to working with grapes. The small vineyard at the farm is home to two grape varieties: solaris and seyval blanc.

The result is an incredibly interesting, fun and lively wine with tropical and lemony notes. There's a real tanginess with citrus notes and a good length. It's complex with soft tannins, which makes it a very drinkable and exciting wine indeed. 

With a big orange slice taking centre stage on the label, Romania’s Cramele Recas isn't helping drinkers who might still be confused about the inclusion of actual oranges in orange wine (spoiler: there aren't any). 

It's another entry-level orange wine that doesn't veer too far from white wine, though, of course, its pale orange colour comes from skin contact. At £10.99, it's the cheapest on the list, and, for that reason, it's one of the most popular orange wines of the moment. 

Made with a mixture of riesling, muscat ottonel, sauvignon blanc and pinot grigio, there are hints of stone fruits and candied apricots, along with an elegant and dry fruity finish. However, for drinkers looking for something more adventurous, this might not fit the bill.

Instantly recognisable, thanks to its Clockwork Orange-esque label, this wine is certainly not a case of being all about looks and little substance. Made by Ancre Hill Estate in Monmouthshire, Wales, it’s another top contender from a UK vineyard.

This gwin oren (orange wine) is a blend of albariño and chardonnay grapes that have been macerated between 30-50 days, which helps give the wine structure and a deep orange tone. It is fermented in both steel tanks and oak barrels and then sits on the lees for 10 months, giving the wine even more complexity. It’s unfiltered and is effervescent almost, with the tiniest bubbles giving it a very lively nature. On the nose are tropical fruits, including apricot, a touch of passion fruit, tangerine and orange blossom, with long savoury notes. Pair it with everything from sushi, umami flavours and even chocolate puddings.

Don't let the name put you off this wine, as there's certainly nothing brutal about it – rather, it was born in Barcelona's Bar Brutal.

Mother Rock wines are a collaboration by South African winemaker Johan Meyer and Ben Henshaw, founder of UK wine importer Indigo Wine. The brand makes small batches of low-intervention natural wines that really bottle up the terroir. However, what's different here is this wine has been created using fruit from other vineyards, as it was not until recently Meyer bought his own vineyard and built a winery (we'll be keeping an eye out for his wines soon). For Mother Rock, he sources the very best organic grapes from across Swartland.

Brutal! is made using single vineyard chenin blanc from the Paardeberg Mountain region, just outside Malmesbury. Although this wine has only had 10 days of skin contact, it's taken on a pale cloudy orange hue and there's an awful lot of flavour, from fresh apple and melon to peach and kumquat, plus delicious chalky minerality.

Eastern Europe excels at orange wine, thanks to the influence of Georgia's historic wine region, which quickly spread across neighbouring countries and into Europe.

Another unassuming wine-producing country is Bulgaria, which is home to Villa Melnik, a family-owned winery near the village of Harsovo in the Melnik region, in the west of the country. It's helping revive viticulture in the country by using indigenous grapes and organic farming to make its wine. 

The winemaker uses sauvignon blanc and the local keratsuda grapes to create this bottle, which benefits from a few weeks of skin contact, giving it an orangey hue. The medium-body wine is wonderfully clean and fresh, with notes of melon and peach. There’s plenty of acidity, and a touch of spice at the end.

Using rootstocks from abandoned vineyards, Chilean wine producer Mauricio Gonzalez follows traditional winemaking methods, including naturally fermenting the wine in traditional qvevri clay pots – exactly how wine's traditionally aged in Georgia. The vino is also aged on skins, which gives it its deep orange colour. 

Made with grapes grown and manually harvested in a cool climate, the wine is unfiltered and has a slight cloudiness to it. It's one of the only wines on the slightly cloudy list, and it's full of bright floral notes, with hints of peach and mango that lead into zesty fruits, intense acidity and a tannin structure that lingers on the palate. 

Just south of France's Languedoc-Roussillon region near the Spanish border, the Le Soula vineyard has 22 hectares. The vines sit on granite-heavy soil, giving the wine a distinctive mineral character. They're also free from all chemical fertilisers and follow biodynamic practices, plus grapes are harvested by hand. 

This very pale orange wine has a tinge of hay colouring, as it's only macerated for around 10-15 days. On the nose, there are hints of fresh green apple along with savoury and creamy hints of vanilla. 

This vino is made from a blend of vermentino, macabeu, malvoisie du roussillon and sauvignon blanc grapes. It’s an entry-level orange wine when it comes to flavour profiles but not in terms of cost, as it's the most expensive on our list. It's much closer to white wine than some other orange numbers and has a real crisp freshness. It is sure to be an easy crowd-pleaser.

With their simplistic but super-cool, minimalistic labels, you'll likely have seen one of New Theory's wines in a bottle shop. The brand was created by brothers Charlie and Thom Bradley with the aim of making wine more fun and inclusive. They say their wines are for sticky dance floors and candlelit dinner tables alike. 

The brand makes clean skin contact and low intervention styles, working with South African winemakers who really know what they're doing. 

The White Lies wine is made with pinot gris grapes grown in granite-heavy soils in a cooler climate, near False Bay, just below Cape Town. Grapes are hand-harvested and have just four days of skin contact, giving the wine a pale colour and low tannins. The result has plenty of ripe fruity notes, such as peach and grapefruit, white flowers and lots of salinity, making it a great accompaniment with white fish.