Drink of the Week: Gia Coppola Orange Wine

I often wonder why orange wine hasn’t captured the same fervent audience as rosé. Sure, the glowing sunset hues of the style, a skin-fermented wine made from a white varietal, isn’t as Instagram-friendly as rosé’s pretty pop of pink. The flavors tend to lean more cerebral, less pool party, with fruit notes skewing funkier and tannins more robust. But for me, that complexity and mystery is exactly what makes the occasional bottle a pure delight as long, lazy summer days wane on. (Don’t get me wrong, I drink plenty of pink “summer water” and have no qualms with reaching for something effortless at the end of a long hot day, but for times I want something a little more intriguing, orange wine tends to scratch that itch.)

Orange wines aren’t exactly the sort you’d pop into the grocery store to find, as good ones can be relatively hard to source outside of well-stocked bottle shops, but as Covid-19 has more of us buying bottles online than ever before (a Nielsen study back in May showed online sales of alcohol were up 234% from the previous year), I’ve found an exciting breadth of options at my fingertips lately.

One that’s proved especially enjoyable comes from the newest arm of the Coppola family, Gia Coppola Wine. Made of 100% riesling, this fun, fresh, and slightly funky orange bears a prettiest golden blush, with an elegant structure and blossoming layers of juicy summer stone fruit and melon, mixed with hints of dark clove and nutmeg. I usually tend to bypass “celebrity” wines, but with the quirky photos on the label (shot by Gia herself) and the picnic-friendly 1-liter-sized bottle, the line manages to keeps things refreshingly playful and light. For $20, it’s an easy pick for a late-summer evening. francisfordcoppolawinery.com