Ovum "Big Salt" Orange Rose

Ovum was founded in 2011 by husband and wife John House and Ksenija Kostic, initially as a love letter to Oregon Riesling. Over time the project expanded to encompass the full range of aromatic white varieties that thrive in the state's diverse growing regions, always with a commitment to low-intervention winemaking, native fermentation, and minimal additions. Big Salt is their flagship blend, a multi-vineyard expression drawing from ten sites across Oregon that together illustrate the state's range of soils and climates. The Orange Rose takes that foundation and pushes it somewhere altogether different. The blend is roughly equal parts ramato-style skin-contact Pinot Gris and the Big Salt base of Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Muscat. The Pinot Gris, sourced from old vines atop Booth Hill in Hood River at over 1,500 feet elevation on ancient volcanic soils, is destemmed and fermented on skins for two weeks with daily pumpeovers until the wine turns dark cranberry. It is then racked into neutral barrel with the Big Salt component, where malolactic fermentation completes and the wine rests on lees for five to six months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered with minimal added sulfur. The color is a striking hazy amber with a cranberry-sunset glow, the product of Pinot Gris skins blending with the warm tangerine hues of the Big Salt. The nose is vivid and layered: ginger, turmeric, mandarin zest, hibiscus, and a hint of tropical spice from the skin-contact Gewurztraminer and Muscat. On the palate it has texture and grip, with roasted carrot, tart red apple skin, fuzzy peach, and a thread of herby salinity that gives the wine its lift and keeps everything from tipping too far into richness. The finish is tart, refreshing, and long. This is a wine for the orange-curious and the already converted alike. Pour it with fried chicken, falafel, grilled corn, roast chicken, or anything bright and herbaceous.