Etna Rosso
With the potential of the Nerello Mascalese grape now clear, Sicily’s volcanic red wine is on a roll, with a boom in investment and vineyard area. Michael Garner reports
88 wines tasted
Exceptional terroir that’s made rapid progress in the last 15 years. Fresh and exuberant wines
THIRTY YEARS AGO, Etna Rosso was in danger of becoming a museum piece. Following DOC recognition in 1968, it had been barely kept alive by a few producers – notably Barone Villagrande, Cantine Russo and the local co-operative Torrepalino (now a privately owned company), serving an almost entirely local market. But a trickle of new interest in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Benanti and then Cottanera invested in the area, was to become a substantial flow soon after.
Between 2003 and 2014 the land under vine in the DOC zone more than doubled, though the consorzio, founded in the early 1990s by just a few growers, predicts that the growth rate will soon slow and peak at around 1,000 hectares. While some of the new blood came from within Sicily, including well-known names like Cusumano, Firriato, Planeta and Tasca d’Almerita, among the first outsiders to arrive were Belgian Frank Cornelissen, Andrea Franchetti from Tuscany and American Marc de Grazia at the start of the new millennium. Local families, meanwhile, have been quick to reclaim their passion for the land and wineries such as Girolamo Russo, Graci and Tornatore are now playing an vital part in the comeback.
Magic on the mountain
Etna ticks almost all the boxes: distinctive local varieties rarely seen elsewhere; cool-climate conditions at altitudes between 400m to 1,100m; myriad soil types from volcanic ash and pumice to patches of limestone and sand – there were even ancient, terraced and some pre-phylloxera vineyards waiting to be rediscovered. Meanwhile, using old maps, local communes have identified 133 contrade (the Italian word for ‘district’) where traditionally the best vineyards were to be found and which are now embodied within the production discipline as MEGAs (Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive).
The excitement has mainly been generated by the potential of the Nerello Mascalese grape, which originated in this part of the island. Comparisons have been made with Pinot Noir thanks mainly to its uncanny ability to express the character of an individual terroir, and also Nebbiolo because of a pale garnet hue, broad aromatic profile, coursing acidity and plentiful tannins. Local consultant winemaker Salvo Foti has added a splash of colour to the story by championing the age-old alberello or bush-trained vineyards and helping to reinvent the traditional palmento system in the cellar. This two-tier approach consisted of a trough for footpressing the grapes situated above the fermentation vats and had long since fallen into disuse.
All Etna lacks is an established, documented track record of fine wine production: its history prior to Barone Villagrande’s first bottling at the end of the 1940s is tied, along with the island’s other table wines, to bulk wine. So, given the huge turnaround on Europe’s largest volcano, is there real magic on the mountain?