Why does Novellino use only stainless steel tanks instead of wooden barrels?
First of all, wooden barrels, like cork, were used as the traditional vessels for fermentation and storage for centuries for the same reason: centuries ago, the stainless steel tanks were unfamiliar/unavailable to winemakers. The wine picks up the taste of wood as it is contained in wooden barrels. I don’t know if the winemakers of years ago really intended that wine should have a woody taste. They simply had no choice then. Even now, some wine drinkers like the woody taste, perhaps as a consequence of tradition. In fact some winemakers, which prefer the technical benefits that stainless steel tanks offer, introduce wood chips to the wine to allow a woody taste. However, the taste profile that Novellino tries to achieve mainly comes from the fruit and not from wood. For this reason, Novellino uses only stainless steel tanks.
