Alliste Novello Wine Festival

The new wine festival in the heart of Salento

The Alliste Novello Wine Festival is the event that, every November 11th, transforms the historic center of this town in the province of Lecce, in lower Salento, into one big collective toast. The date is no coincidence: it coincides with the feast of St. Martin, the saint linked by ancient rural tradition to the opening of the barrels and the tasting of the first wine of the vintage. A popular Apulian saying perfectly summarizes the spirit of the day: "on St. Martin's Day, every must becomes wine."

Novello wine, pittule, and autumn flavors

The absolute star is the novello wine, produced using the carbonic maceration method and available only from the first weeks of November: fresh, fruity, and vibrant in color, it should be drunk young, within a few months of bottling. Accompanying it, along the streets and squares of the village, stalls offer the most authentic flavors of Salento cuisine: the essential pittule (fried leavened dough balls), cheeses, cured meats, roasted chestnuts, and other local specialties.

A popular and convivial tradition

The event has the character of a village festival: free admission, tastings at stalls set up in the historic center, music, entertainment, and the typical market fair dedicated to local crafts and food and wine. St. Martin's Night in Salento is experienced as a moment of community and joy, among friends and families gathering in the illuminated streets of the center.

Alliste and the Salento territory

Located between the Ionian Sea and the countryside of southern Salento, Alliste — with its hamlet of Felline — is a town with a strong agricultural identity, where vine cultivation and wine culture have deep roots. The Novello Wine Festival highlights this very bond with the land, becoming part of the rich calendar of Salento's St. Martin's celebrations, when dozens of towns in the province of Lecce celebrate the new wine together. For those visiting Puglia in autumn, it is the ideal opportunity to discover a more intimate and genuine Salento, far from the beach season.