These wine trends are hip now

That will be in the glass in 2023

These wine trends are hip now

Most New Year’s resolutions are doomed to failure. But there is another way! In the new year, looking beyond the edge of your glass should be easier than the rocky road to a six-pack or breaking the cigarette.

Isabelle Thürlemann-BriggerEditor Wine

After the holidays, the wine cellar is often empty. A good opportunity to leave old drinking habits behind and start the 2023 wine year with new momentum.

You can now look forward to unusual expansion methods, exciting wine regions, alcohol-free sips, distinctive colors and rosy times.

Aging wine in wooden barrels or in steel tanks is too common for many winegrowers. Increasingly, in the world of wine, there are drops inspired by antiquity, which are matured in clay amphorae and sometimes even fermented. Tiny amounts of oxygen reach the wine through the fine pores of the vessel, which ensure slow development, preservation of fruit notes and softer tannins. A similar result can be achieved with the concrete egg. Apparently straight out of a science fiction film, it is finding more and more supporters. They swear by the organic form because it allows the wine to be in constant contact with the lees and encourages the development of a delicate melt.

In addition to the usual suspects, up-and-coming wine regions with an excellent price-performance ratio can increasingly be found on the wine shelves of larger and smaller retailers. In 2022, wine producers from the Balkans held the first Wine Fair in Belgrade, and Armenia was the guest country at the last edition of Expovina in Zurich. Also this year we can count on a stronger presence of these old wine nations and discover previously unknown grape varieties.

The niche of non-alcoholic wines is constantly growing, and with it the demand for quality. Although they often lack body, they are an interesting alternative to banal soft drinks on a tasteful menu. More sophisticated specimens are sometimes even aged in wooden barrels today and reveal complex aromas. Fine fruit juices, which achieve a nice depth of flavor through fermentation, also provide variety. This is how the Dry January can be simply slurped away.

Orange is a wine color that’s finally going mainstream. It is a white wine that comes into contact with air during production and is left on the grape skins for a certain period of time (maceration). Through this process, colour, tannins and aromas from the mash are transferred to the wine. This results in expressive wines with a velvety mouthfeel that show unusual ethereal and acidic notes. White wines are currently on the rise, which are blended with orange wine to achieve more complexity. These cuvées have a more accessible flavor profile than orange wine and also appeal to the less daring.

Once derided as a pool wine, global interest in rosé has been growing steadily for some time. There was an additional boost in 2020 with the approval of pink Prosecco. Southern French producers have already followed suit and launched sparkling wines in a similarly fruity style. But even dry specimens have their charm. Whether still or sparkling, they cut a fine figure as an uncomplicated accompaniment to vegetables, fish and white meat. The prospects for spring’s first picnic are undoubtedly bright.