ITALIAN WINE CLUB
June 2021
VOLCANO JUICE
Just a few months ago Mt. Etna lit up the Sicilian skyline with yet another dramatically beautiful eruption. There truly is no other place in the world of viticulture quite like it’s domain. Sure, volcanic soils are so important for many regions both inside and outside of Italy, but the fact that ancient vines witness eruptions and fresh lava flow with such regularity is nothing shy of astounding.
Etna wines have only recently been recognized fully for their potential, with complex terroir factors finally being studied and understood. Etna essentially created its very own microclimate, shooting up 3000 meters straight out of the sea. Many of the vines are own-rooted, over 100 years old in many cases, with volcanic ash making for very fertile soils which are extremely beneficial for organic farming. Each vineyard site could have an entirely unique soil composition compared to its neighbor due to the layers (and age) of lava flow that they may have been planted over. Cool.
There is a continually evolving Cru system, or Contrada, designed to identify the more highly regarded vineyard sites; there are 133 officially designated Contrade, but certainly only a 12 or so are truly considered the highest quality. Soaking in the history, the terroir, the potential – learning about Etna is easily one of the most fun and interesting journeys in Italian wine. But the first step, as always, is to crack a bottle and taste the volcano.
Kevin Wardell, June 2021
TORNATORE
‘PIETRARIZZO’
ETNA BIANCO
Castiglione di Sicilia, Sicily, Italy, 2019
CARRICANTE [kerr-ah-KAHN-tay]
Racy and mineral, Carricante is among Italy’s very best white grapes. Grown almost exclusively on Mt. Etna, it can make dazzlingly complex and ageable wines, combining brilliant lightness with robust weight and texture. Etna locals even have a word to describe its signature lemony/salty/mineral tang: muntagnuolo, that mountain je-ne-sais-che-cosa…
Carricante prefers Etna’s cool upper reaches where Nerello typically won’t ripen. Unfortunately, far less Carricante is grown today than a century ago – just a scant 123 acres are planted at present, compared to 9,800 acres in 1915, but acreage is increasing with Carricante’s rapid ascension-to-star status.
The Tornatore winery began when Francesco Tornatore decided to leave his real job in telecommunication to make wine from the vineyards his great-grandfather planted in 1865. This incredible historic vineyard was established in Castiglione di Sicilia on the volcanic northern slopes of Mount Etna. Francesco humbly took on his family’s 150 years of farming experience, learning from the generations of farmers who have refined viticulture at the extreme.
The family grows the native varieties Nerello Mascalese, Carricante, and a little Catarratto, at extremely high elevation, between 2,300 and 3,300 feet, on soils created by ancient lava flows. Etna has erupted over many millennia, contributing to diverse terrain and complex mineral soils. The vines benefit from heat given off of the dark volcanic soils- essential to properly ripen the grapes- and also from the windy climes and strong diurnal swings which retain acid and focus in the wines. The Tornatore fruit is picked by hand, and the white grapes are de-stemmed, crushed and lightly pressed for fermentation, with aging in very large 1,000 gallon oak casks.
Etna biancos at their finest are dizzyingly delicious – like being at high altitude. They are crisply saline Ionian sea breezes, and they just barely hint at the volcanic soil that courses in their vine’s veins. The Pietrarizzo is such a classic Etna beauty, serving up plenty of Kaffir lime and juicy green summer melons, sprinkled with salt and clover honey. All that green and saline finishes up with a refreshing Moroccan mint sun tea, a heady herbal quencher that will find you inexplicably muttering “muntagnuolo” under your breath.
This volcano juice is as rich and savory as a lemon infused olive oil, or better yet, as an “agrumato”- a rare Italian olive oil made by crushing fresh lemons with the olives in the press.
GRACI ETNA ROSATO
Sicily, Italy 2019
NERELLO MASCALESE [neh-REHL-loh MAHS-kah-LEH-zeh ]
Nothing has matched the meteoric rise of native grapes more than Nerello Mascalese. In a short time, from the slopes of Mt. Etna, Nerello has gone from being sold off in bulk and drowned out in innocuous red blends, to playing a defining role in the showcasing of Mt. Etna’s dramatic terroir. The discovery of old, pre-phylloxera Nerello vines planted in volcanic soils at high elevation has set off a vinous gold rush on this Big Rock Candy Mountain. Etna is truly where Nerello Mascalese thrives, from the flatlands of Faro on the eastern side, all the way up to 3,300 feet on the northern, eastern and southern sides of the mountain.
Alberto Graci left his family’s holdings in Sicily to become a banker in Milan, but when his grandfather passed away, he moved back home to take up the family business, although he changed his focus to the slopes of Etna. Nowadays his vineyards and winery are located on the northern slope of the volcano, near the town of Passopisciaro at elevations between 2,000 to 3,300 feet. He organically farms 45 acres, with 37 acres planted to Nerello Mascalese, and just 3 acres of Carricante and only 2 acres of Catarratto.
For his rose, the Nerello is lightly pressed then fermented with native yeast and aged in cement tanks for five months prior to bottling, with no malolactic fermentation. Graci will be the first to say that Etna is a special place, for three main reasons. First, it has all that Sicilian sun, but with a climate moderated by altitude. Second, the dynamic volcanic soils. And third, the timeless, un-grafted vineyards clinging to its slopes.
This is a Still Life With Peaches. From the blush color to the orchard aromatics and all throughout the palate, this wine is bursting with peachiness: furry peach skin, canned yellow peaches, and white peach compote galore. All that stone fruit is hedged with a tinge of lemongrass, a whiff of dried potpourri flowers, and a zip of navel orange. A touch of white tea tannins adds a savory dryness for a graceful landing.
Sicilian is considered by UNESCO to be its own language, with a hodgepodge of roots from Arabic, Hebrew, Byzantine, and Norman. Even within Sicily there are distinct dialects… we never said Italy would be easy.
Na buttigghia di vinu, pi favuri.
‘Nother glass of wine please!
PIETRO CACIORGNA
‘CIAURIA’
Etna, Sicily, Italy 2019
NERELLO MASCALESE [neh-REHL-loh MAHS-kah-LEH-zeh ]
Sour cherries, herbs and tobacco are hallmarks of Nerello Mascalese, with minerality and smoky ash notes underpinning many of the wines. It is a very late-ripening, heat-loving grape, often hanging late into the harvest season into the middle of October. It is sometimes aided by blending with a little bit of its fellow Etna-natives: Nerello Cappuccio and Nocera. Though they share the same name, Cappuccio is unrelated to Mascalese, and is often used to provide a darker color and deeper richness to Etna Rosso blends.
Paolo Caciogna has a foot in Tuscany and the other on Etna, and his heart deep in the soil. Based in Tuscany, the family’s Azienda Pietro Caciorgna mainly farms cereals and vegetables, and raises cattle. They grow just 5 acres of Sangiovese. In 2006 Paolo visited his close friend Marco de Grazia at his famous Etna estate, Tenuta delle Terre Nere, and Marco convinced him to acquire a small gem, a one acre vineyard of pre-phylloxera Nerello Mascalese, nearly one hundred years old, own-rooted. Paolo now works with a few such tiny diamonds in the tuff (har!) all near the town of Passopisciaro around 2,500 feet of elevation.
Paolo says “The land in this area is magical!” He attributes the mineral soils to grapes which have aromatic finesse and silky and velvety tannins. Soils here are jet black and very porous, with layers of mineral-rich volcanic ash and sand. Paolo’s aim with this wine is to make a simpler accessible version of Nerello that captures the ‘Ciauria’ or ‘perfume’ of Etna. Winemaking is light-handed, with native fermentation occurring in stainless steel tanks and brief aging- just six months in French oak barrels for an aromatic and light-bodied Nerello that is easy to please.
Get yer aromatic volcanic eruption right here, folks. The nose is bombastic with pomegranate, cranberry and mulberry red fruits, slightly smoked red cherries, and a sprinkle of alder-smoked salt. There’s even a touch of toasted Panettone, rich and decadent with dried fruits and almond extract. The subtle hint of smoke is so intriguing under the pure and pretty fruit aromas, like basalt shavings and balsamic reduction drizzled over strawberry shortcake, or the heady sweet musk of palo santo. Pour another round of Etna perfume!
Etna translates to “I burn” which it certainly does, erupting on average once a year. Sicilians call the mountain Mungibeddu [mohn-jee-behd-du], which means ‘beautiful mountain’ in their dialect, in addition to being super fun to say.
ROMEO DI CASTELLO
‘ALLEGRACORE’
Etna, Sicily, Italy 2018
NERELLO MASCALESE [neh-REHL-loh MAHS-kah-LEH-zeh]
An offspring of Sangiovese and sibling to Gaglioppo, Nerello produces wines that are generally light in color (it’s low in anthocyanins like Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo) but tannic and well-structured and aromatically intoxicating. Nowadays Nerello is even equated to cru Burgundy and esteemed for its elegance and age-worthiness. Some of the most cellar-able wines come from the contrade (zones) of Rampante and Guardiola, situated very high up on Etna’s northern slope, whereas the Santo Spirito zone tends to give the softest, roundest and most camera-ready Nerello when young.
The Romeo di Castello estate has run through four generations of women, now led by mother and daughter team Rosanna Romeo and Chiara Vigo. The two farm 34 acres in Randazzo, at 2,300 feet on the northern slope of Mt. Etna. In 1981 one of Etna’s most destructive eruptions destroyed much of the family’s 140 acres, covering the area in a vast lava flow and leaving a 20 foot wall of petrified lava surrounding the estate. While the family lost nearly half of their land, their 100 year old Nerello Mascalese vineyard and their family’s historic farmhouse were spared. They now farm 35 acres of Nerello, olives, oaks, pears, and chestnuts, and they claim that their lava wall perimeter has created a unique microclimate that blocks wind exposure!
Chiara earned her PhD in art, focusing on wine labels and even publishing a book on the subject; hence, the beautiful art adorning her bottles, some of which are actual photos of the “art nouveau” wallpaper in the farmhouse. When she took up winemaking, she was advised by Salvo Foti, learning from the expert’s experience in the cellar and vineyard. The grapes are hand-harvested, fermented without yeasts, enzymes, or temperature control in stainless steel for the “Allegracore.” Sulfur is used sparingly, if at all.
What a classic and stylish beauty, truly showing the Nerello parallel to great Burgundy. Open your heart, literally pop it open, and let this baby breathe itself into life. There is a cascade of rose petals, and a complexion as dark as the night sky, with a few mineral shooting stars. This is more reminiscent of tar than smoke, with a savory – almost molasses iron earthy richness. There is more black fruit than the red fruititude of the ‘Ciauria,’ and a deeper savory character of charred red meat, cassis and grilled stone fruit. This wine flows as fast and easy as hot lava.
“Allegracore” is the vineyard name meaning “the place that makes a happy heart,” but due to DOC rules, wines from this area could only sport the name “Etna Rosso”- that is until 2011 when winemakers fought for the right to use vineyard names on their labels. And won. Yay!