I tasted this wine without knowing what vino novello actually meant. My first impressions, as you will see in the tasting note, were of Beaujolais Nouveau. Later I did some checking to see what it really meant. I soon found out that just like Beaujolais Nouveau it is a new wine, a celebration of the harvest.
New wines are the first wines of the crop and are permitted for sale in November (6th for Italy and 16th for France). The fermentation process that takes place to produce new wines is that of carbonic maceration. What basically happens with carbonic maceration is that the wines are fermented whole rather than crushing (or breaking up) the grapes in making a normal wine. The result is that the juice ferments inside their skins. After a number of weeks the winemaking process is continued as per normal. The resulting wines are light and fruity with very little tannin and thus no aging ability.
Here is my tasting note:
Colour: light, bright cherry-red in colour.
Nose: fresh, bright cherry nose.
Palate: Beaujolais-like; quite spritzy with the same spicey cherry as the nose. virtually no tannins at all.
Finish: light spicey finish.
Comments: a nice light summer drink, and piece of tradition that will hopefully stay.
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