Expert summary: Michael Garner
The fresh 2014 wines and the Castiglione di Sicilia zone were the stars of this encouraging tasting, which shows how far this demomination has come in 15 years
A highly impressive set of results for a denomination that until the early 2000s had barely registered beyond a local audience. some 41% of the wines tasted scored 90 points or above and while none averaged more than 93, there were one or two that just missed the Outstanding level where individual tasters awarded very high marks but no consensus could be reached.
Our panel loved those beguiling aromas of red cherry and cranberry which, even at an early stage in the wines’ development, are accompanied by more ethereal notes of spice, cedar, smoke, leather and tobacco. marked acidity, abundant if generally ripe tannins and substantial alcohol levels provided decent structure.
Though such nuance is rare in such young wine, none of us identified great potential longevity. Of course this is more than reasonable: older bottles of etna rosso that prove how well the wines age are simply not available. indeed, wines on show from the 2010 vintage and earlier seemed ready for drinking. so far then, these wines seem best for short- to medium-term enjoyment.
There were a few surprises where some prestigious names underperformed. The rovittello bottling from Benanti – generally accepted as the producer who got the etna party started – just missed out on a highly recommended. in fairness, Benanti is known for its subtle, restrained etna rossos and such wines tend to be overshadowed by more strident, showy examples at blind tastings. its wine was also from 2012, which fared rather less well than the other vintages on show.
The wonderfully fresh 2014 wines were on the whole the most successful group, the cool 2013 vintage perhaps slightly disappointing, the very ripe 2012 wines clearly from a much warmer vintage and the handful from 2011 already approaching full maturity.
The best-performing wines – which usually had the volume control turned up to 11 – came from smaller, local, family producers (russo, graci and Tornatore). The best-performing area was, unsurprisingly, Castiglione di sicilia: 46 of the 133 contrade are in this large zone on the drier, warmer northeastern slopes of the volcano.
‘41% of the wines tasted scored 90 points or above, one or two that just missed Outstanding level’