Wine · No snobbery
Orange wine in Belgrade: what it is and where to try it
Orange wine is not made from oranges. It's white wine made like red: the grape skins stay in contact with the juice for days or months instead of being pressed off immediately. The result is amber-coloured, textured, slightly tannic — white wine with a backbone.
What does it taste like?
Depending on the bottle: dried apricot, black tea, walnuts, honey, orange peel (coincidence, not the reason for the name). It's the wine equivalent of switching from milk chocolate to dark — unusual for a sip, then hard to go back.
Why it suits Belgrade
Skin-contact winemaking is ancient Balkan-adjacent tradition — Georgia, Slovenia, Friuli — and it pairs brilliantly with the food this city loves: grilled meat, aged cheese, ajvar. Serbian natural winemakers are starting to experiment with it too, so expect local bottles soon.
Where to try it
On our list at Čin Čin in Vračar we keep two organic skin-contact wines: an Austrian Meinklang Weisser Mulatschak (Gewürztraminer/Welschriesling — floral, juicy, easy entry point) and a Czech Hedonista Milan Nestarec (Grüner Veltliner blend — wilder, funkier, for the converted). Both by the glass on request — ask what's open. We're at Radoslava Grujića 28, open Tuesday–Sunday from 18:00.
How to order it without the ritual
Just say "something orange, on the lighter side" — any bar worth its list will take it from there. If you hate it, we'll pour you something else. That's the rule.
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