Happy October, Jet Wine Club-bers!

Enjoy this month’s Orange and Black (and purple!) wines while contemplating this question: Why do orange and black symbolize Halloween?

Well, I thought maybe the orange of pumpkins and the black of witches’ robes and black cats… but that sounds more like a just-so story. So, is there a reason?

I went online to the ultimate authority on the subject: Martha Stewart. It turns out Martha did not turn to Snoop for help on this, but rather to a Halloween historian – Lesley Bannatyne. According to her, this – like so many card holidays – had a commercial origin. Apparently the first Halloween decorations to be sold in the US (in 1909!) were orange and black. That took off. Well, that is how it got codified, anyway, but what of the original use?

It is well accepted that Halloween grew out of a Celtic fest named Samhain, that was in practice a couple thousand years ago. For the Celts, Samhain occurred on the night of transition to winter. That transition could let souls and the dead pass the earthly borders and so big bonfires were made. Is that the orange? Maybe. Black? Well, that is the color of death, the dark night, shadows… and one factor that links many precursors to modern Halloween is, in fact, death and the honoring of the dead and propitiating the spirits.

From the Celts we get to the Romans, who were influenced by the cultures of their hinterlands. Yes, the Romans had a festival for the dead – Feralia. They gave gifts to the dead to keep them from haunting the living. But was there anything orange? Well, amber was a popular commodity and color – but I don’t think most people were presenting gifts of (luxury) amber in the necropolis. Garments could be dyed orange, and priests and priestesses wore orange robes.  Purple – another color associated with Halloween – also colored robes, and these were a real luxury that in time was limited to the emperor. Oh, that gives a reason to mention the Phoenicians! Purple was known as Tyrian Purple due to its association with the Phoenician city of Tyre, located in modern Lebanon on the Mediterranean Sea.

So, we have the orange of fire, amber, and garments. We have the black of night and of death. Are these the answers? Let’s think some more about that with this months wines. They are, of course, Orange and Black!

These wines come from one of our favorite vendors, Giacomo, who started his own company, DiLisi Imports!

The wines are both from Vineka, a Puglian winery founded in 2016 by Guglielmo Zito. The  focus here is on sustainable winemaking with sourced grapes from local vineyards whose values mirror Zito’s own. These are grapes from happy, healthy vineyards!

Bianco Macerato 2023 is made from 100% Verdeca that is macerated (fermented with the skins) for 20 days. The natural wine undergoes spontaneous fermentation (no inoculation of yeast). Stainless steel production. 6 mos on lees

This is our ORANGE wine (with a purple label!!!!). Why orange? Well “orange” wines are made via skin contact, gaining color and tannin from the skins of the grape. So, just as rose is a red grape made like a white wine – limiting skin contact to reduce both color and tannin – orange wine is a white grape made like a red wine – increasing skin contact to both color and tannin. The degree of each of those depends on the grape – each variety has varying color and tannin content. The relatively rare Verdeca, itself, is a lightly floral and herbal grape with notes of fleshy tree fruits like apple and peach. The skin contact increases the intensity of those flavors, adds some almonds, and also adds a freshness and zest to the mouth feel. In other words, it is delicious.

Negroamaro 2022 is produced from 100% Negroamaro grapes. The wine is macerated in stainless with the addition of locally grown almond skins. To lessen tannins, extraction occurs during fermentation. Like the Bianco, the wine undergoes spontaneous fermentation.

Also like the Bianco, this is truly a Puglian wine.  It is our BLACK wine. Negroamaro – variously believed to mean “bitter (amaro) black” or derived as “black (mavro) black” is grown in a tight geographical range focused in Puglia and, particularly, Salento where this