Nova Vita Wines
Adelaide Hills , South Australia
Brands
Firebird, Project K, GK
Winery Overview
Nova Vita Wines was established in 2000 with the planting of the Woodlands Ridge Vineyard and is a family run wine business based in the internationally acclaimed cool climate wine region of the Adelaide Hills. They are an estate grown and family-owned business with most of their wines produced from grapes grown on our vineyards. For special projects i.e. Project K wines and entry level wines, they buy from other regions or growers but the vast majority of their wines are made from their own grapes. Mark and Joanne Kozned and their 4 children run the business with Mark the winemaker and viticulturalist and Joanne in charge of finances. They have over 50 hectares of vineyard planted in the Adelaide Hills and have the capacity to produce over 50,000 9LE cases per annum from their own vineyards.
Nova Vita produce vegan friendly wines and grow their grapes using sustainable practices. They are as close as possible to organic vineyard and winemaking as they can be and have been experimenting with organic practices on specific blocks of grapes to perfect practices before they take their vineyards to organic viticulture.
Their first range of wines released in 2004 was the Firebird range of wines named after the Russian mythical Firebird where in mythology if you see or hear the Firebird you will be blessed with luck and happiness in life. The Firebird range is generally a single varietal range of wines and is their highest volume range mainly focussed on the Australian domestic market but is exported in smaller volumes. The FOB ranges from A$7.50 for the aromatics (Sav Blanc, Pinot Gris and Rose) up to A$12.50 for the complex reds.
Their Project K range of wines is a new natural range of wines utilising field blending practices where the grapes are combined as unprocessed grapes (rather than blended as finished wines and fermented on skins at lower alcohols levels. These wines are low sulphur, natural yeast ferments (wild), unfiltered and un-fined producing cloudy wines that will amaze and excite you. They are low volumes with no more that 1,000 6-packs made each year and have a A$17.50 FOB. They started with 2 wines: a Gris, Gewurztraminer and Riesling blend and a 50/50 Shiraz Pinot Noir field blend. They are expanding this to include a Montepulciano and a Skins contact Gruner Veltliner.
Their main export range is the GK range of wines named after George Kozned, Mark’s father, and was Nova Vita’s highest export range sold mainly in China and Singapore. With the closure of the Chinese market, Nova Vita is seeking to introduce this range of wines to greater Asia and Europe. The main focus of the GK range is Shiraz with products at the entry level all the way up to icon (entry, mid, mid+, premium, premium+ and icon). The entry level starts at A$4 FOB a bottle and the Icon (Trailblazer Shiraz) has a A$100 FOB. Other varieties include a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Bordeaux blend and a Sauvignon Blanc.
Seeking Distribution in
Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, USA, Vietnam
Chief Winemaker/s
Mark Kozned backed up by Chris Parsons from Revenir Winery, Lenswood, South Australia
Winemaker Bio
Mark Kozned wine journey started in 1998 when he decided that he wanted a new life (that’s when Nova Vita (yes it means new life) was born) sitting with Joanne in a little French café in London. After being away from Australia for 7 years he gave up his international investment banking career to pursue his real passion – growing grapes and making wine (and drinking truckloads of it!).
Twenty years of grape growing and 10 vintages later at Tintara and Revenir and an on-and-off again Masters of Viticulture and Oenology at Adelaide University (yes its still only 80% complete) and he is still restless.
Wine making philosophy – let the grapes do the talking. This includes:
• sustainable practices in the vineyard are key - he keeps experimenting with organic practices but the terroir makes it difficult
• making wines that are balanced and elegant and readily smashable. He believes in getting back to basics and letting the grapes do the talking not winemaking gobbledygook – hopefully this produces wines that are fuller and scrumptious!
• where possible using natural yeast (wild ferment) and certainly no animal products.
• going on a natural wine tangent to have some more fun, edginess and risk with Project K
Wines he loves to make – his latest focus is on the natural field-blend wine project called Project K where a huge amount of risk with uncertain outcomes has produced amazing wines. His favourite is The SPN - a co-fermented Shiraz/Pinot field blend.