This city, try as it might, is still trying to find its identity when it comes to wine (our blue-collar roots coupled with some of the silliest liquor laws on the planet can really stifle an industry). But over the years, Philly’s wine world, led by a select few impassioned restaurant owners, beverage directors, general managers, and wine purveyors, scratched and clawed their way to the top, bringing with them some enviable wine programs. It was only in the last decade that Philly went from a town of “house whites” and red zinfandel to a town of orange wines and funky rosés. So like it does every year, Philly Wine Week will showcase some of the city’s best wine programs with wine-focused events through the week (this week). For the full list of events, hit up the Wine Week website. Otherwise, here’s a list to get you started. The must-go wine event of the week is Kensington Quarters’s Lambrusco Festival. GM and wine-pro Tim Kweeder is a huge fan of the bubbly red, so he’s installed multiple Lambrusco bars and brought in his chef-friends from around town to sell ‘brusco-friendly eats through the night.

It’s cash-only for food tickets ($5 each), and all food items will be 1-2 tickets. Fun starts at 7 p.m. and goes till midnight. Paris Bistro celebrates one of its most classically French dishes — the Marseille bouillabaisse ($26) — with a flight of white, rosé and red for $18. Orange wine is one of the biggest drink trends of the year, and Good King Tavern is showing off their goods with an extensive by-the-glass list and small bites, plus a live cheese and charcuterie counter from 5-11 p.m. best cheap wine for chickenThe orange pours from 5 p.m. to close.good food and wine fair Jezabel Careaga (Jezabel’s) will team up Jill Weber of Jet Wine Bar for a night of pintxos (tortilla de patatas, boquerones, escalivada, etc.) and vermouth by-the-glass or flight. best online wine shop europe

Get there between 7-9 p.m. to drink, eat, and chat with Jill and Jezabel. Celebrate women in the wine industry at Tredici Enoteca where some of the best female wine makers from around the world will gather to show off their products by flights — three wines, three cheeses, $22. It’s going to be 70 degrees and sunny on Saturday, so spend your morning in Rittenhouse park and head to Lacroix for lunch. top wines of 1990There, exec-chef Jon Cichon and beverage director Hai Tran will have a three-course lunch waiting for you with a Loire Valley-focused wine pairing for just $50. orange wine for sale ukCall 215-790-2533 to make your reservations.the best wine with pizza Sunday is the last day of Wine Week, so hit a triple if you can:box of wine for christmas

Orange rinds are familiar turf for cheese lovers, but orange wine-washed cheeses are new territory. I plodded through post-nor’easter NYC slush to get to Brooklyn to taste six such cheeses together with the wines they were washed with, and the results more than made up for the messy commute.The cheeses are the product of a collaboration among Alessandro Trezza and Monia Solighetto, owners of Have & Meyer, a natural wine bar and kitchen in Williamsburg; best rose wine in usasix Italian wine producers; best food and wine cities in francefive small farms in the US and Italy; and Crown Finish Caves cheese aging facility in Crown Heights. Trezza and Solighetto first encountered Crown Finish aged cheeses at a farmer’s market in Park Slope. When the couple learned that the caves were located in Brooklyn, they were very curious to see the space, which is housed 30 feet underground in an 1850s lagering tunnel of a former brewery.“

Being Italian, we are mostly used to aging facilities that are located in the countryside,” said Solighetto. “So we knew this was something we had to check out.” They visited the caves and met with owner Benton Brown last September, and it was then that they proposed the idea of washing artisanal cheeses with orange wines.For those who are unfamiliar with orange wine, also known as skin-contact wine, the term refers to white wines that are made like reds, leaving the colored skins of the grapes in contact with the juice for prolonged maceration. This process results in heartier, more tannic whites. Trezza and Solighetto chose producers from several different regions of Italy for the orange wine-washed cheese project, called Rinds & Skins. With the help of Crown Finish, they also selected cheeses representing a range of milks and textures.“Cheese and wine are both agricultural creations that are alive and that complement each other. We were curious about how they would interact . . . and also wanted to join the two cultures of Italy and the US, mix Italian soil and American soil,” said Solighetto.The cheese and orange wine marriages include:Paymaster and Trebbiano d’Abruzzo (Cheesemaker: Coach Farm from NY;

Winegrower: Francesco Cirelli from Abruzzo)Trifecta and Campedello (Cheesemaker: Old Chatham Sheepherding Company from NY; Winegrower: Croci from Emilia Romagna)Bufarolo and Ageno (Cheesemaker: Quattro Portoni Caseificio from Bergamo; Winegrower: Elena Pantaleoni of La Stoppa in Emilia Romagna)Experience and Radikon (Cheesemaker: Consider Bardwell Farm from VT; Winegrower: Radikon from Friuli Venezia Giulia)Bismark and Serragghia (Cheesemaker: Grafton Village Cheese from VT; Winegrower: Gabrio Bini and his son Giotto from Sicily)Pruner and Ribolla (Cheesemaker: Old Chatham Sheepherding Company from NY; Winegrower: Gravner from Friuli Venezia Giulia)  After the cheeses arrive at Crown Finish Caves, they are washed with a brush saturated with the chosen wine (which is cut with a four percent brine to reduce the alcohol content). They are then stored in the aging cellar and washed three times a week for two weeks up to four months, depending on the ripening process.The wines were carefully selected to balance the flavors of each cheese;