Etna, part 2. Confessions of a Lava Lout

Part 1 on Etna explored how and why the wine revolution there is gathering pace – to the extent that Etna could one day become one of Italy’s prestigious wine regions. The word is getting out – the Randazzo/Linguaglossa/Passopisciaro area is already being referred to as “the Golden Triangle”!

Part 2 presents vignettes of selected producers and wines. I’ve concentrated on those that piqued my interest most; frequently they are redolent of terroir, the unusual and the naturally made. These are ordered below by following le Città del Vino del Vulcano (Etna wine towns) clockwise around Etna, from Randazzo down to Viagrande, near Catania. They were compiled from a number of sources during 2008:

• Producer visits in August and September while based in Passopisciaro
• Tasting Etna wines at BD Mansions
• Tasting notes, including the 10th Definitive Italian Tasting (London, June) and the 28th ViniMilo (Milo, September). I missed the inaugural Le Contrade dell’Etna tasting held at Passopisciaro at Easter, but you can’t do everything!

To help navigate here’s a Map as a guide to the area.

Randazzo

Tenute delle Terre Nere

The organic single contrade Etna Rosso DOC Feudo di Mezzo 2006 was my Wine of the Month in September 2006. All the details are contained there.

Their Etna Bianco 2007 is also excellent. Vinified in stainless steel it is a very well balanced 12.5% alcohol, made from 50% Carricante, 25% Catarratto, 15% Grecanico and 10% Inzolia; the vines are between 40 and 140 years old. There are some bubbles in the glass, the slight spritz adding to the fresh nature of this wine. The nose is all fresh lemons and orange peel and this zesty quality is also on the palate, the fruit a full bodied combination of lemon and grapefruit before fading to an almond like finish. It will probably take some bottle age but I wouldn’t wait. Just €12, money well spent. No doubt that owner Marco di Grazia is at the forefront of Etna wines.

Passopisciaro

Antichi Vinai

Established in 1877 by the Gangemi family, Antichi Vinai also has holdings elsewhere in Sicily. Petra Lava Etna Rosso DOC 2001 shows how Nerello can age gracefully, going slightly raisiny with age. I found it in a Randazzo shop for just €5, an entrancing bargain! The premium Koiné Etna Rosso DOC 2004 is a real step up, made from old bush vines. The floral and strawberry-ish Petra Lava Etna Rosato DOC 2007 is a very superior Etna rosé, while the Petra Lava Etna Bianco DOC 2007 was all racy acidity and broom-scents, containing only Carricante and Catarratto. Their Nerello dominant spumante is made by the Charmat (Tank) method and is an enjoyably flowery diversion, while Nero d’Avola, Chardonnay, Grillo and Inzolia are also made.

Etna Wine

The very traditional Grasso family own this large estate on the SS120 just outside Passopisciaro. Established in 1820, the winery was built in 1840 and is still used without any modernisation. It’s a fascinating place, being built along the shadow of the summer solstice and facing north – not for any mystical reasons, rather to maximise coolness – that’s all the temperature control there is! There’s still foot-pressing in a stone tub similar to a Port lagare, and the original vertical press is also used, the weight derived from a huge chestnut beam needing four men to operate it. Fermentation is completely natural and the winery is gravity fed from the press to the huge 32,000 litre chestnut casks that had to be constructed inside the winery. Out in the vines, there’s Zibbibo (Muscat Alexandria) for a good dessert white and younger Nerello trained on wires. However, the best vines are ancient low-yielding bushes with huge gnarled trunks on the terraces. They are field blends of Nerello and white grapes.

While the basic Etna Rosso is spare and pinched, the top wine named after the Viceroy of Sicily is made from the old vines and is very characterful and only €10. Etna Rosso DOC Don Eustachio, Duca di Laviefulle 2007 is 13.5% and a field blend with over 90% Nerello Mascalese. A light bricky colour, it’s very aromatic, with plenty of bright cherry acidity and a satisfying savoury note. It’s young and tannic but is perfect with pasta and is history in a glass. I’ll admit to bias here, having stayed on this lovely old property and enjoyed the Grasso’s hospitality– there is a case for modernisation here, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Passopisciaro (Tenuta di Trinoro)

Established by Andrea Franchetti, the owner of Tenuta di Trinoro in Tuscany. In 2000 he bought 8 ha of vineyard and the holdings are now 13 ha, with old vine Nerello bush vines and yields down below 30 hl/ha. Franchetti goes for very long hang time, harvesting in November, but avoids new oak. Back in 2006 I discovered Passopisciaro IGT 2004, his über-premium IGT made of 100% Nerello Mascalese blended from various contrade. This is what I wrote then:

The Nerello Mascalese vines are between 80 and 100 years old, making low yielding complex wine of amazing power. This had a 4-hour decant given its youth, and it needed every minute. Like all Nerello, it’s a pale colour given such power – a pale crimson. The nose shows ripe red cherry and, when left to open, lavender and aniseed appears. This is a huge mouthful, the fruit is so ripe it's like sweet kirsch; it has 15% alcohol but little alcoholic burn. The spice-box hits on a very long finish, cinnamon and anise. Drinking this now is really infanticide; there are huge drying tannins that will need years to evolve, perhaps at least another 5 years, and then who knows how long it may last? 20-30 years seems entirely possible. Apparently the 2004 vintage is the best yet and it’s now rated by Gambero Rosso at the full 3 glasses. Making only 5-10,000 bottles per year, this wine has already garnered considerable attention and is likely to become a cult.

Well, the Passopisciaro IGT 2006 is around €25 and inhabits the same territory, very tight and monstrous, so best left for a few years to unfurl. Then there’s Guardiola IGT 2007 from Chardonnay grown at 1,100 metres, a sweet Bianco Dolce 2007 made from a mélange of dried white grapes (Minella, Cataratto, Carricante, Volpe, Inzolia and Grecanico) in very tiny quantities which had sold out. Finally, Franchetti IGT 2005 has been added to the line-up. Made from young vines, (60% Petit Verdot and 40% Cesanese) that yield a remarkably low 12 hl/ha there’s just a couple of thousand bottles made. This is new flagship wine has attracted all kinds of accolades – but at €65 I decided to pass it up! As the Le contrada dell’Etna is held here maybe I’ll get to taste it, I’ve no doubts that it is superlative.

Linguaglossa

Áitala

Owned by the Trefiletti family, Áitala is certified as Organic by Ecocert and has vineyards in four different contrade. Etna Rosso DOC 2005 is a heady 14%, partly due to the vintage conditions and because it’s from lower and hence warmer terraces at 500-750 metres. A blend of the two Nerello’s, grown on wires with a 60ha/hl yield, fermented using modern temperature control but then traditionally matured, first in large Chestnut botti for 6 months and then in bottle for 3 months before release. Super violet and red fruit aromas with sour red cherry, smoke and minerality on the palate. Full bodied and juicy, the tannins are just a touch grainy. An excellent wine for drinking over the next 2-3 years, with great labels and even greater value at less than €10 cellar door. Áitala makes a good Bianco (featuring Inzolia and Minella alongside the Carricante and Cataratto), a 100% Nerello Mascalese IGT and a Syrah. Worth seeking out.

Gambino

There’s a very wide range of wines on offer from Gambino at contrade Petto Dragone, including Alicante IGT 2005. This is indigenous Grenache grown at Linguaglossa and Piedimonte Etneo. Purplish ruby red and with slightly warming alcohol at 14%, this is an enjoyable quaffer that’s had 9 months in older French oak – there’s no big oak flavour here, just a rounding out of bold southern Mediterranean flavours and a hint of spice. Acidity has been preserved, so there’s none of the stewed jammy fruit found in lesser brethren. There’s a connection between Alicante and the British Navy via Admiral Nelson, who owned but apparently never visited his nearby estate – so perhaps the Brits originally brought Grenache to Sicily, though this is mere speculation. Anyhow, at €5 it makes for an enjoyable everyday diversion from Nerello.

Tenuta Scilio di Valle Galfina

Scilio make an Etna Rosso that gives you all the terroir highlights with tremendous value. Orphéus Etna Rosso DOC 2000 really sings and is the pick of their range, thank you Giovanni Scilio. From vineyards in the contrade Valle Galfina at around 650 metres with old vines and low yields at 38 hl/ha, it’s 80% Nerello Mascalese and 20% Nerello Mantellato matured in barrique for 1 year and then in bottle for another two. This is the proof, if any were needed, that Nerello ages gracefully. Purplish with a crimson rim, there are lovely perfumed aromas and a smooth texture akin to that found with Pinot Noir, but it’s all black fruits with an attractively funky finish, underpinned with a mineral streak and good length. Slightly heady at 14% but still a good balance, at just €12 I thought this seriously under priced! An honourable mention for Sikélios IGT, a red passito sweet wine made from Nerello.

Terre di Trente

Started by two Belgian art dealers (Trente Hargrave and Filip Kesteloot), the first vintage was in 2005. This is a tiny property making just one wine from two vineyards, using organic methods. Terre di Trente IGT 2006 is 90% Nerello Mascalese and 10% Nerello Cappucio. The Molarella vineyard is outside the DOC, with 50 year old vines at 550 metres, while the Arcuria vineyard has 80 year old vines at 800 metres and is in the DOC. There’s some barrel work going on here but that’s nicely judged. Big alcohol at 14% but a nice balance with the acidity and red berry fruit. Savoury and coffee bean note bound with minerality – very much like Tenuta Terre Nere. Very impressive.

Castiglione di Sicilia

Cottanera

The Cambria family from Napoli run this fairly large 50 ha estate at contrade Ianazzo. The wines are very modern, with extensive use of French oak barriques - plenty that are new and high toast it seems. There’s Syrah (Sole di Sesta), Cabernet Sauvignon (Numé) and Merlot (Grammonte), while Nerello Mascalese is available as an IGT blended with these (Fatagione). These are ambitious wines available in the UK, though they are not cheap (at around €25). With their big bold fruit-forward flavours and oak-dominance they are too international in style for me.

More interesting is L’Ardenza IGT 2004 at 13.5%. It’s made with Mondeuse, hardly a native but found in French Savoie and in northeast Italy as Refosco. Again, this is made in the house style, a heady full-on wine, all polished blackcurrant and vanilla. I think it’s a bit overoaked too but perhaps the fruit will suck it up with time. Blind, I’d have said it was an Australian Cabernet – so no Refosco character here.

More successful and much cheaper is their Barbezzale IGT 2007, with 90% Nerello Mascalese and a splash of Nero d’Avola. 50% of the wine gets the barrique treatment, but only for 4 months. Violets on the nose and good fruit intensity (blackberry and raspberry) with a balsamic and slightly bitter finish though I still find the oak character dominant at this early stage. Around £11 in UK and much more fun.

Frank Cornelissen (Solicchiata)

Cornelissen pushes all my extreme-winemaking buttons but I’m not completely on board with the wines – yet. The estate includes some 8.5 ha of bush vines, including ungrafted prephylloxera vines, at up to 980 metres, plus other forms of agriculture. Here is hand-made natural wine making in extremis (not, I think, biodynamic as no treatments are used at all). The wines are made in terracotta amphorae (just like at some of my favourite producers; COS, La Biancara, Gravner and Movia). There’s no fining, no filtering, wild yeasts and no sulphites either. Very limited quantities are made, in part because extreme pruning means tiny yields and only the best grapes are selected in several vineyard passes. So far, so very deeply cool.

Vino Rosso Magma IGT. The bottle has the word Magma hand-written vertically in red oriental-style lettering. The wine has massive power and density (15% alcohol), yet has lots of lift and aromatics, and very rich dense fruit and cake spices and some underlying funk. 100% Nerello Mascalese I’m told but really like no other. It’s good, very mad and very expensive.

MunJebel Bianco IGT is completely bizarre and I was hoping for the kind of ecstatic revelatory moment I always get with Gravner’s Breg, but it didn’t come. It’s made from Grecanico, Carricante, Dorato and Coda di Volpe. It’s orange in colour, but there is no aroma and even less fruit. Bone dry, it feels oxidised and disappointing. A work in progress?

I love what Cornelissen is doing, it appeals to the avant-garde in me, it’s cutting edge, intellectual and it’s art rather than artisanal. I’m impressed by the techniques but challenged by the wines. It’s that feeling you get when confronted with a Francis Bacon triptych – something visceral, bestial and slightly unpleasant occurs inside – and for that alone, all hail. Undeterred, I’d like to experience these wines again, including a sparkling red the colour of blood made by natural refermentation.

Milo

Barone di Villagrande

Founded in 1727, they went organic in 1989 and are now Ecocert certified. They have 20 ha at Milo: 8 ha of Nerello, 11 ha of Carricante and 1 ha of Merlot. There are some old alberello bush vines, but wire trellises predominate. The estate is an interesting combination of the traditional (old chestnut casks) and modern (stainless steel and French oak barrique). They also have a vineyard on the island of Salina, from which they make a Malvasia delle Lipari passito wine. Their Etna Bianco Superiore “Fiore” DOC 2006 is for me their standout wine and will probably age very well. Pure Carricante, a brilliant yellow colour, slightly viscous. Herbs and flowers (broom again – Ginestre) on the nose, a full-bodied apple and citrus palate and good length.

The Etna Rosso DOC 2005 I found light and rustic, while the Sciara de Villagrande Rosso IGT 2003 (90% Merlot, the rest Nerello) invoked my usual predjudices against internationalism.

Santa Venerina

Tenuta della famiglia del Scammacca del Murgo

Murgo for short! As well as still wines (Etna DOC wines and IGT’s feat. Cabernet and Chardonnay), Murgo make non-vintage Fizz at their Tenuta San Michele HQ using full Metodo Classico techniques. There’s a Brut and a Rosato but their best is the Extra Brut NV, a 12.5% Blanc de Noir with 100% Nerello Mascalese in the role of Pinot Noir. This really does get the full treatment – only the best juice is used from the pressing, which is then fermented in stainless steel and left for 9 months on the lees. After blending and bottling the wine is allowed to sleep for another four years. The result is a bone dry wine with long-lasting bubbles, a pale yellow colour with plenty of autolytic yeasty notes and a fresh citrus and creamy biscuit character. Real excitement!

While Murgo are not the only sparkling wine makers on Etna (There’s Torrepalino and Antichi Vinai, perhaps there are others) this Extra Brut NV is the best local fizz I’ve found, excellent standards and only around €15! I wonder if they’ll ever try making sparkling Chardonnay or Carricante as a Blanc de Blanc?

Viagrande

Benanti

Benanti are rightly regarded as the quality pioneer in these parts, established in the 1800’s. Current owner Giuseppe Benanti is completely devoted to Etna terroir, indigenous grapes and sustainable practices, a discoverer and recorder of history. Oenologist Salvo Foti started here and is now a superstar in these parts, consulting at a number of wineries (and is about to be announced as Gambero Rosso’s winemaker of the year 2009). Benanti’s best wine is probably Etna Bianco Superiore DOC Pietramarina, which oddly is not from the village of Pietramarina in the north, but from the area around Milo in the east – most confusing! I have notes on vintages 2000 to 2006 and can confirm that this wine is consistently good every year, though it needs bottle age to show off. Here’s a consolidation of my notes on the 2000, 2002 and 2004 vintages:

This pure Carricante comes from old bush vines planted in Benanti’s original vineyards sited on the eastern slopes of Mount Etna at Caselle, some 950 metres in altitude. Pale yellow, flecked with green and deepening as it ages. The nose has muted tangerine and lime with a definite mineral character. Apple comes through on the palate too, a slight oily character adding to the pleasure and balancing out fresh acidity. Very long, with an almond finish. The 2004 is very young and austere at present but has real structure. This needs maybe another 2 years to develop and will make fine drinking possibly over the next 10 years. The 2002 is coming into an ideal drinking window, while the 2000 is simply awesome, with attractive complexity brought on by a gentle oxidation. Outstanding, one of Italy’s truly brilliant whites. Gambero Rosso 3 Glasses most years. Benanti was Gambero’s Italian producer of the year 2007. At €20-€25 again this is a bargain compared with equivalent quality white burgundy.

Benanti also make standalone varietals packed with interest. A Minella Bianco IGT is very rare and the Nerello Cappuccio IGT unusual – lighter, softer and fruitier than brother Nerello Mascalese IGT.

Etna Rosso di Verzella 2005 DOC is the entry-level, grown at Castiglione and given 8-10 months in older barriques and is great value at €8, showing red fruits, minerality and racy acidity. Etna Rosso DOC Cru Rovittello DOC 2005 is a more serious expression. Again from the north side of Etna at Castiglione, this is a bigger and more structured wine from older bush vines able to take 12 months in barrique, it’s just ready now and priced around €12.

The premium Etna Rosso DOC cru Serra della Contessa 2004 is made from 100 year old ungrafted bush vines that somehow have survived phylloxera, grown at Monte Serra in the east. I’m told that this vineyard can be dated back to 1474! The grapes are given a long maceration to extract colour and flavour, and then matured after fermentation in large chestnut casks before getting a final stint in French oak. A hallmark of this wine is its sheer pinosity – perfume, mouthfeel and savoury complexity. Add concentration, minerality and balance and you have an irresistible package, one of the very best Etna Rossi, drinking now and over the next 10 years – and all for €25. Benanti is the Gold Standard in these parts.

And finally…

Phew! Yet this only scratches the surface of what Etna has to offer and there remains so much more to discover, e.g. from producers like Calabretta, Russo and Gurrida at Randazzo, Graci and Feudo Arcurìa (with its Byzantine Dovecote) at Passopisciaro, and Rocca d’Api at Zafferana Etnea. Sadly, they must wait for another time – not too long I hope.

Paul Howard, January – October 2008