Nuova Mattina comes from Del Ducato, a brewery in Emilia-Romagna, and it is the beer that made a case for putting herbs and spices into a saison rather than leaving the style alone. Coriander, chamomile and black pepper go in with the malt and hops, and the result is a pale, dry, faintly bitter beer that smells like a garden after rain.
- Spiced saison, brewed with coriander, chamomile and pepper.
- Del Ducato, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy.
- Bright citrus and herbal character.
- Dry, low in sweetness, quietly bitter.
How it is made
A saison is a farmhouse ale from Wallonia, brewed originally in the cooler months for farm workers to drink through the summer. It is fermented warm and often down to a very low final gravity, which is what leaves the beer dry rather than malty. Del Ducato takes that frame and adds botanicals: coriander seed, chamomile flowers and pepper, layered in so they read as part of the beer rather than as a flavour dropped on top.
How it tastes
Pale straw in the glass, with a fine, lasting head. The nose is citrus peel and chamomile, a little white pepper behind it. On the palate it is lean and dry, the spice arriving late and staying on the finish. The bitterness is gentle, enough to clean the mouth without dominating. Nothing here is sweet.
Good to know
Italian craft brewing took off in the 1990s, decades after Belgium and Britain had their own revivals, and it did so without much of a farmhouse tradition to draw on. Brewers like Del Ducato went looking for one anyway, borrowing the saison template and then pushing it somewhere the Belgians had not, with herbs, spices and a bitterness closer to the Italian palate.
