Minimal intervention? Skin contact? Explaining the weird and wonderful world of Lo-Fi wine.

You’ve probably heard terms like “natural”, “minimal intervention”, “new wave”, or “hands off” thrown around when talking about wine. And you’ve most likely heard them as someone pours you a glass of wine that they describe as “funky, eccentric, and juicy.” All of these terms and descriptors have emerged from the weird, wonderful, and rapidly expanding world of Lo-Fi wines.

Technically Lo-Fi wine is undefined, but it’s mostly used to describe a broad selection of wines that are crafted with no or very few adjustments during the winemaking process. The term Lo-Fi is borrowed from music, where low fidelity describes a sound that’s comfortable with including imperfections. And with wine it’s not too different. Lo-Fi wines aren’t manipulated to perfection, instead they celebrate the more raw elements of winemaking.

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What is minimal intervention wine?

Lo-Fi winemaking might sound like a more relaxed approach but in reality it can take a lot more work, patience, and instinct from the winemaker. As an example let’s look at Native & Ancient Marlborough Lo Fi Pinot Noir, which is crafted from organically-grown and hand picked grapes. Native & Ancient then use ancient winemaking techniques where the only human intervention is gathering the grapes, guiding the wine, and then bottling. The result is a raw expression of pinot noir, that’s deep red in colour but bright on the palette.

Col Fondo Prosecco

Dal Zotto Col Fondo Prosecco is another example of how winemakers have looked to the past to inspire Lo-Fi creations. While most modern prosecco is fermented in large steel tanks on an industrial level, Dal Zotto’s Col Fondo is fermented in the bottle using an ancient Italian method. This creates a more complex prosecco with a flavoursome sediment at the bottom of the bottle which gives it its name.

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What is skin contact?

Experimenting with traditional techniques and playing around with the rules is a big part of the Lo-Fi wine movement. Wines that are crafted “on skins” are a great example of how mixing techniques can pay off tremendously. In short, “on skins” or “skin contact” wine is a white wine that’s been made using a technique that’s more commonly used for reds. Most white wines are made by pressing grapes after harvest and only fermenting the juice. But in the case of skin contact wines you let the juice ferment with the skins, which extracts more tannins, flavour, texture, and colour.

The resulting colour is why skin contact wines are also known as orange wines. (That’s right, orange wine isn’t made from oranges.) The darker the colour, the longer the wine spent fermenting on skins. Some wines will spend just two weeks on skins, while others could go on for months. This creates a wide-ranging spectrum of coloured wines, from white all the way to amber. Native & Ancient Marlborough On Skins Chardonnay Gris has a colour like fresh gingerbread and a flavour similar to one too. Airlie Bank Gris on Skins however, is a more blushing pink-orange musk colour that perfectly hints at the fresh bittersweet flavour inside. The pinkish colour is derived from contact with the skins of the gris grape, which despite being a white wine has pinky-purple hued skin.

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Are all Lo-Fi wines blends?

Some of the best Lo-Fi wines are blends made up of various wine styles mixed together to create something new and unique. Not all Lo-Fi wines are blends, but they’re something the Lo-Fi movement does particularly well and is celebrated for. Taking the best elements of each wine and mixing them together, they’re able to create funky new styles that are bright and gluggable.

Serafino Orenji Project McLaren Vale White Blend is a great example of how a Lo-Fi blend can become more than the sum of its parts. It’s a mix of gewurztraminer, pinot grigio, and white frontignac that all come together to make a vibrant new wave wine with multiple layers of flavour.

Bonkers Juicy Yellow Wine

Speaking of vibrant, we can’t not mention Jumping Juice when we talk about Lo-Fi wine blends. Jumping Juice is all about blending exceptional wines in order to capture sunshine in a bottle. If you’re just getting started in the world of Lo-Fi wine then we’d recommend the Jumping Juice Bonkers Juicy Yellow Wine as a great starting point. It’s a bright, tropical, and racy little number that has just enough skin contact for a beginner to notice without getting whacked in the face by funkiness. Start with a glass of that and you’ll be a Lo-Fo wine diehard in no time.