2023 Novel Concept Novello Sangiovese

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 full bodied red wines and occasionally rosé from sangiovese, but in 2023 for the first time I experimented with a chilled red style and selected this variety. Fruit was machine-harvested and de-stemmed into a stainless-steel tank. The tank was cooled to delay fermentation, resulting in five days cold soaking of the berries with the juice. After pressing the very light-coloured wine fermented 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 in September. 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 released within a few months of harvest. Chilled red wine is gaining much attention and affection from consumers in Australia and overseas, so while Novello wines aren’t new, chilled red made from Sangiovese certainly is a Novel Concept.