Etna Wine Month | Etna Wine School

Week 4 | The Future of Etna.

At A16, we’re welcoming Benjamin North Spencer - founder of the Etna Wine School and author of ‘New Wines of Mount Etna’ (May 30 SF - May 31 Rockridge) - an evening where we continue to dive into the incredible renaissance of one of the world’s world-class wine growing areas.

also pouring by the glass and bottle:

Ayunta
Emiliano Falsini
Girolamo Russo

Idda - Angelo Gaja and Alberto
Graci’s inaugural vintage is here!

| past weeks |

Celebrating the women winemakers of Etna. We'll be poring wines from these producers by the bottles and by the glass.

Fattorie Romeo del Castello | Rosanna Romeo + Chiara Vigo

Proprietors Rosanna Romeo and her daughter Chiara Vigo are taking

Etna's historic Fattorie Romeo del Castello to a higher level.

The 14 hectare estate is surrounded by a 20 foot wall of petrified

lava formed during an eruption in 1981, one of Etna's most vicious.

The stream that forms the wall was headed directly towards the

vineyards and house, but miraculously took an abrupt right turn before

extinguishing itself into the Alcantara river. Though 15 hectares of

land were scorched, luckily their 100 year old vineyard of Nerello

Mascalese was spared. And to top it off, the wall of lava has modified

the vines' exposure to wind, creating a unique micro-climate! On a

lower plateau, young vines of Mascalese from massale selection have

been planted over the last decade, for a total of 14 hectares at 700m

elevation.

All of the vines are trained in alberello, the traditional cultivation

method of the region. In her beginnings, Chiara was heavily assisted

by Salvo Foti's I Vigneri team of workers in the vines as well as

Salvo in the cellar. But with accumulated experience, she now does

everything herself.

The grapes are hand-harvested, fermented in open wood vats for the

"Vigo" cuvée and stainless steel for "Allegracore," without yeasts,

enzymes, or temperature control. Sulfur is used sparingly, if at all.

"Vigo", a riserva made only in exceptional vintages, is aged in older

oak casks for about 14 months then bottled without fining or

filtration. The "Vigo" shows all the remarkable characteristics and

potential of this perfect match of terroir (pure volcanic ash and lava

flow) and a delicious grape variety only found in this corner of the

world. How great are the soils here? A thousand year old olive tree

survives in them.

Beyond the wine itself, Chiara has used Fattorie Romeo del Castello to

pen a love letter of sorts to her family's past through the dynamic,

ever changing labels. Each cuvée tells a different story, with each

vintage adding an element to the narrative (we highly recommend you

reading each wine's "fun facts" to dive deeper into their meanings).

Prior to coming back to the winery, Chiara earned her PHD in art and

specifically focused on wine labels (she even published a book!), so

it's no surprise her own wines would serve as an artistic outlet.

Ciro Biondi | Stef Biondi

Ciro Biondi's family has owned vineyards in this area since at least

1800, and first sold bottled wine under their label a century ago; the

modern iteration of the Biondi winery started in 1999. Ciro (an

architect by training) and his wife Stef own three vineyards near the

small town of Trecastagni and have reworked an old palmento in one of

their vineyards as a winery. Barrel storage is in the little old

cellar of the family house in the center of Trecastagni.

Once the overall reputation of an appellation is established, the next

step (particularly for an area as large as Etna) is to find out how

the parts of the appellation differ. Biondi's cellar and three single

vineyards are on the south-east slope of the volcano, in Trecastagni.

At the moment, the wines grown and produced on the north side Etna,

such as Passopisciaro and Terre Nere, are better-known. In my view,

this is because there are more established producers there, not

because the wines are better. Historically, the south side was better

known than the north.

The northern slope of Etna produces wines that are more structured and

darker, while the south side of Etna tends to produce wines that are

more subtle, more Pinot-like, often paler in color. For this reason,

Nerello Mascalese, the predominant variety in all Etna Rosso, is often

blended with Nerello Capuccio, a darker variety. I like both styles,

and I think time will show that the very best wines from Etna will

come from both sides of the mountain. Biondi's wines are now

unquestionably in this top echelon, and they are improving every year.

Maugeri

Eastern Sicily: 83 terraces, stretching between Contrada Praino and

Contrada Volpare, through the pathways of the Milo forest, 700 m above

sea level, on the eastern slopes of Mount Etna, the highest active

volcano in Europe.

Maugeri is the wine-growing project of an Etnean family, who have

returned to their home district to make wine once more. The unbroken

line of more than 2.8 km of lava dry-stone walling borders the 7

hectares of the property, an amphitheatre of fertile volcanic soil, in

a close embrace with the Mediterranean landscape.

Renato remains a child of the 1960s, knowing every corner of the

estate, with his children Carla, Michela and Paola accompanying him in

every decision.

Three professional women, who through the wine give expression to the

intimate relationship between the calling of the land and their family

values linked to environmental and social sustainability.

An architect by trade, Carla Maugeri has taken over the restoration of

her family's estate, comprised of seven hectares.

Buscemi | Mirella Buscemi

In 1799, England’s Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson had just vanquished the

French in the Mediterranean and was given by the Neapolitan king the

title, Duke of Bronte—plus a plot of land on Mount Etna’s northwest

face, covered in grape vines.

These few acres, more than 3,000 feet above the azure Mediterranean

with midnight-black volcanic soils, today still retain the same mix of

grapes they did centuries ago: Nerello Mascalese, Etna’s native red grape, and Grenache—a legacy, perhaps, of the Spanish House of Bourbon that ruled the region during the 18th century.

Indeed, Azienda Agricola Buscemi is the single winery in Sicily that honors the ancient ties of the Mediterranean winemaking diaspora.

These two red grapes thrive amid Etna’s extreme climactic conditions—for wines of impeccable balance and freshness that are like few other wines from Sicily.

Winemaker Mirella Buscemi, originally from Syracuse, is a trained chemist; it was her grandparents who owned vineyards and who inspired in her a love of viticulture and wine. Fate showed its hand once she met and married winemaker Alberto Graci (of Azienda Agricola Graci in Passopisciaro), with a wedding gift of ‘Tartaraci,’ the plot of land once owned by naval legends, now back in native hands.

With bush-trained vines more than 100 years old, ‘Tartaraci’ is a

unique vineyard, covered in snow during winter and Mediterranean-hot

in summer. Yet great wine is always made at the extremes—and it is

here, at altitude, where Mirella crafts world-class red and white

wines redolent of wild herbs and silky fruit, in micro-quantities.

Cottanera | Mariangela Cambria

Mariangela Cambria, the owner of Cottanera Winery, is a strong woman

who tamed Etna's territory to produce one of the best wines on the

market. Established in the 1960's Cottanera was once a hazelnut grove that was turned into a winery.