ITALY DIVIDED OVER ‘VINO NOVELLO’ (NEW WINE): WINENEWS-VINITALY SURVEY REVEALS 49% ALWAYS BY NEW WINE UPON ITS RELEASE WHILE 51% REFUSE TO BUY IT AND REMAIN FAITHFUL TO MORE TRADITIONAL WINE

Italians are divided precisely in half over the issue of “Vino Novello” (New Wine, or rather the first wine that is made just after the grape harvest and released shortly thereafter at the beginning of November): one part (49%) regularly buys one or two bottles of Novello every year, retaining that it is a symbol of autumn, while the other half (51%) never buys it, preferring wine that is obtained from more traditional techniques. This was the result of the survey conducted by www.winenews.it and Vinitaly (www.vinitaly.com).
The survey, which was conducted on 1,365 “enonauts”, revealed that people either love Novello or they hate it. So what are the motivations behind these sentiments? Those who chose to buy Novello when it is released for sale at the beginning of November retain they do so because it is a symbol of autumn (54%), or a rite of culinary passage during this period along with porcini, chestnuts and freshly pressed olive oil. For 25%, instead, Novello is bought simply because it is good. While 21% consider it a true ritual, like that of buying panettone (a traditional sweet originally from northern Italy) for Christmas. No one, however, claimed it to be an interesting new trend though new wine can actually be traced back to a very recent debut in the 1990’s.
For those, instead, who refuse to by Novello, the main reason (38%) is because they prefer wines that are obtained from more traditional winemaking techniques. For 32%, they just don’t like the taste of Novello, and 29% consider it solely a marketing strategy by winemakers.
Similar to its French “cousin” Beaujolais Nuoveau, Vino Novello is the first wine obtained from the fall grape harvest through a process of carbonic maceration. It is released on the market at midnight on November 5 (also known as its déblocage). This wine process was first introduced in Italy in 1989 and, today, has reached a production level of 1 million bottles per year.