(ANSA) - The countdown is on for the official opening at the weekend of this year's Vino Novello (new wine), which promises to be an excellent vintage.
The growing legions of wine drinkers infatuated with Novello, the Italian cousin of the more famous French Beaujolais Nouveau, will be able to pop the first corks at one minute past midnight and, according to wine experts, then enjoy the wine for the next six months.
A total of 20 million bottles of Novello were produced this year, compared to 18 million last year and only five million in 1987, when the Italian new wine was officially recognised.
Novello, like Beaujolais Nouveau, is a light, fruity red wine which by law must be bottled within the year of the harvest, but in practice is bottled within a few weeks. The Italian wine will have a 12-day jump on its French cousin which is traditionally opened on the third Thursday of November, this year on the 17th.
According to the Italian Farmers' Confederation (CIA), Novello has "carved out its own niche in Italian wine production and has the advantage of being only sold in bottle form."
"It also gives us a taste of what the whole vintage will be like. This year it appears to be excellent, especially for wines from central and southern Italy," CIA added. Novello prices this year will be between two and six euros, the same or slightly below last year.
The tradition of producing new wine began in the Beaujolais area of France's Burgundy region during the 1950s and has really caught on in Italy in the last decade. Although connoisseurs may snub it, Novello has become increasingly popular year after year, especially among young people, thanks to its clear red color, fruity taste and low alcoholic content, only 11%.
The fruity flavour of the wine is in part due to the fact that the juice of the grapes is not left too long with the grape skins which contain the chemical tannin. This allows winemakers to blend several types of grapes and the wine can even be served chilled like white wines. One of the differences between Novello and Beaujolais is that several of the Italian wines retain some of the carbonation used to accelerate the fermentation process while the French Nouveau is traditionally flat.
The place to be this year for Novello-lovers will once again be the New Wine Salon at the Vicenza fair grounds, the only specific meeting of its kind in Italy for Novello. Novello-lovers, experts and almost all leading producers will be on hand to witness the ceremonial opening of Novello 2005 following the traditional inaugural gala evening.
The New Wine Salon is organized by the Vicenza Trade Fair authority in association with "Civilta' del Bere", Italy's leading wine magazine.
