2023 Contact Natural Orange Riesling, Columbia Valley, USA 🇺🇸

Some orange wines are built around funk.
Others are built around freshness with just enough grip.

The 2023 Contact Natural Orange Riesling feels like the second kind — an orange wine that stays welcoming, bright, and easy to drink while still giving you that skin-contact texture that makes the category interesting. It is an orange wine fermented on the skins, with aromas of pear and peaches alongside nutty accents, and a palate showing soft, refined texture with a strong core of melon and citrus fruit.

That profile makes a lot of sense for a skin-contact Riesling from Columbia Valley. The fruit sounds generous and lifted, while the texture stays refined rather than aggressive. A wine that leans more toward freshness and drinkability than heavy tannin or oxidative intensity. 

What It Feels Like

Think spicy noodles, snacky dinner food, and a bottle that gets people curious without making them work too hard.

What makes this wine appealing is the way it seems to balance fruit and texture. Pear, peach, melon, and citrus give it a very open, friendly entry point, while the skin-contact fermentation adds a little grip and depth. Soft and refined texture is important here — it suggests an orange wine that feels polished rather than wild. 

In the Glass

Aromatics
Pear, peaches, and nutty accents.

Palate
Melon and citrus fruit with a soft, refined orange-wine texture.

Texture
Soft and polished, with skin-contact structure that feels more graceful than grippy. This is a summary of the published tasting note.

Finish
Fresh, citrusy, and lightly savory, with fruit and subtle texture carrying through the close. This finish summary is my interpretation based on the verified review.

Why We Love This Bottle

Orange Wine That Stays Easy To Love
The strongest thing in the published note is the wine’s soft, refined texture. That makes this feel like a very approachable entry point into skin-contact whites.

Riesling Brings Lift
Even under skin contact, the fruit profile stays in a bright, juicy lane — pear, peach, melon, citrus — which helps the wine feel energetic rather than heavy. That is my interpretation from the review.

A Great Bottle For Bold Flavors
The combination of fruit, citrus, and light orange-wine texture should make this especially good with spicy or savory dishes. That pairing guidance is my recommendation based on the verified flavor profile.

Pair It With

• Spicy noodles
• Thai curry
• Roast carrots with yogurt and spice
• Salty snacks
• Fried chicken

These are my pairing recommendations based on the wine’s skin-contact texture, soft fruit, and citrus/melon core.

Technical Notes

Wine: Contact Natural Orange Riesling
Vintage: 2023
Region: Columbia Valley, USA
Grape: Riesling
Style: Orange wine / skin-contact Riesling
These core identifiers are supported by the published 2023 review, though I did not locate a full official winery tech sheet in the search results.

Winemaking:
The wine is described as an orange wine that was fermented on the skins. I did not find additional verified public details on vessel, maceration duration, or élevage for the 2023.

Body: Light-Medium
Structure: Soft texture · citrus-melon fruit · subtle skin-contact grip
This structural summary is based on the published tasting note.

Flavor Profile
Pear · Peach · Nutty Accents · Melon · Citrus

Drink Window
Now–2028.