'Novel Concept' Novello Sangiovese 2024

A$32.99

I love sangiovese, and it is one of the most planted Italian varieties in Italy and Australia. Sangiovese is quite adaptable to its environment, and quite malleable in the winery, meaning you can get diversity of styles. In previous vintages I have made bolder red wines and occasionally rosé from sangiovese, but for the 2024 vintage I was interested in making a lighter bodied, younger-drinking red wine.

Fruit was machine-harvested and de-stemmed into a stainless-steel open fermenter where it stayed for five days on skins. The wine was pressed before it had finished fermenting to limit extraction of tannin. After pressing the wine completed ferment in stainless steel, and once complete was transferred to neutral French oak puncheons for malolactic fermentation. The wine was blended and bottled without fining or filtering at the end of November 2024.

Vino Novello is Italy’s answer to the famous French wine Beaujolais Nouveau, being a very light and fresh young wine. Novello essentially means new, and typically this Italian produced wine is intended to be consumed within a year of production. It can be made from a great many different varieties, but ultimately the concept is the same, novel or otherwise.

I love sangiovese, and it is one of the most planted Italian varieties in Italy and Australia. Sangiovese is quite adaptable to its environment, and quite malleable in the winery, meaning you can get diversity of styles. In previous vintages I have made bolder red wines and occasionally rosé from sangiovese, but for the 2024 vintage I was interested in making a lighter bodied, younger-drinking red wine.

Fruit was machine-harvested and de-stemmed into a stainless-steel open fermenter where it stayed for five days on skins. The wine was pressed before it had finished fermenting to limit extraction of tannin. After pressing the wine completed ferment in stainless steel, and once complete was transferred to neutral French oak puncheons for malolactic fermentation. The wine was blended and bottled without fining or filtering at the end of November 2024.

Vino Novello is Italy’s answer to the famous French wine Beaujolais Nouveau, being a very light and fresh young wine. Novello essentially means new, and typically this Italian produced wine is intended to be consumed within a year of production. It can be made from a great many different varieties, but ultimately the concept is the same, novel or otherwise.

Jeni Port - Wine Companion
“A novello, early-drinking style that shows one of the many sides to the sangiovese grape. More restrained than the previous release but offering more fruit concentration and interest, especially when it comes to food-matching possibilities. Wild herbs, black cherries, black berries, earth, fennel seed and bracken, while subtle pressed-flower florals gather on the bouquet and arrive fresh and juicy on the palate. Some savoury notes peek through, piquing added interest.” 90 points

Stuart Knox - The Real Review
”Ruby red with purple tints. Raspberry confectionery, rosemary oil and dry earth aromatics. Medium weighted and slippery on the palate, black cherry fruit with dry woody herbs and a hint of liquorice. Decent length on fine sandy tannins.” 89 points