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VAL DEMONE
Val Demone comprises the northeastern corner of Sicily. It includes the island’s second- and third-largest cities, Catania and Messina; Europe’s largest active volcano, Mount Etna; and the archipelago of seven volcanic islands known as the Aeolian Islands. In Roman mythology a giant convulsion that tore Sicily from the Italian mainland created the Strait of Messina, which separates Messina from Calabria. From the plains of Catania to the slopes of Etna and the northern coast west of Milazzo, Val Demone has been celebrated for its fertility throughout history. Of the Tre Valli, Val Demone was influenced by the island’s Greek and Byzantine rulers to the greatest extent. The three principal wines zones in Val Demone are Etna, the Northeast Coast (including the Faro, Mamertino, and Cefalù subzones), and the Aeolian Islands.
ETNA
The belt of vineyards that girds the slopes of Etna has a climate resembling that of northern Italy. On Etna’s slopes the principal grape variety, Nerello Mascalese, can be transformed into unique wines that are site sensitive. This delicate relationship between vine variety and place recalls that between Nebbiolo and the Langhe Hills of Piedmont, where Barolo is produced, and Pinot Noir and the Côte d’Or (“Golden Slope”), the home of red Burgundy. The wine world is discovering Etna before time and neglect have dismantled its stone terraces and uprooted all its old alberello vines. There is now the interest and the will to embrace Etna’s remarkable terroir.
MAP 5.
Val Demone
In the middle of the nineteenth century the Etna wine industry shifted gears from producing vino da pasto to vino da taglio. According to the Bourbon land register (cadastre) of 1844, there were 25,600 hectares (63,259 acres) of vines planted there. This amounted to more than 50 percent of the extant farmland.1 Around 1880, Etna became the area most planted to vine in Sicily, with about fifty thousand hectares (123,553 acres), and the most productive in terms of volume. That prosperity is visible today in the well-built stone houses from that era that line the streets and the Circumetnea railroad circling Etna, in operation since 1895. The dissolution of the vibrant export market to France, the diminution of the agricultural workforce due to emigration, and the decimation of vineyards by phylloxera, followed by the political and economic strife of the first half of the twentieth century, erased the advancements of the early quality wine producers on Etna, such as Spitaleri, Tuccari, and Biondi & Lanzafame, which worked in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Most of Etna’s vineyards are on its northern, northeastern, eastern, southeastern, and southwestern flanks. The preferred historic locations were the fertile plains elevated above the sea and the lower slopes that could be farmed without terracing and were in close proximity to the port of Riposto, the exit point for the area’s wine until the early twentieth century. During the nineteenth century, elevations on the eastern slopes tended to be less than four hundred meters (1,312 feet). Here it was warm enough to always ripen grapes. But phylloxera was more devastating here due to the higher proportion of sedimentary soils. Because of both its arrival at the start of the nineteenth century and a worsening market for wines, citrus fruits replaced vines on the plains and the lower slopes. New vineyards were planted at higher elevations, where the greater proportions of lava rock and volcanic sand in the soil were inhospitable to phylloxera and where land was less expensive, though still costly to farm. These vineyards joined existing ones that belted the northern slopes of Etna between Solicchiata and Randazzo. Along the northeastern, eastern, and southeastern flanks vineyards moved up to between four and eight hundred meters (1,312 and 2,625 feet).
During the 1950s, antiphylloxera rootstocks came into use on Etna, decades after they had arrived in other areas of Sicily. Many stone terraces were bulldozed in favor of larger, gently sloping terraces that did not need rock walls. Systems that trained vines on wires, such as single Guyot or cordon-spur, replaced alberello. A continued worsening of the market for wine doomed the new vineyards on Etna’s north face. Many vineyards on the eastern and southeastern slopes were sacrificed for buildings.
The wine production that continued served local needs. Families that owned small vineyards and shared small palmentos with other families largely supported the remaining wine culture. They had excellent viticultural skills, some maintaining terraced vineyards trained in alberello. Without sophisticated markets for their wine, though, its quality did not keep pace with that of the rest of Sicily. Until the mid-1990s Etna producers made wine using the pestimbotta method in palmentos. Hygiene was lacking. The wines were flawed. Meanwhile, winegrowers in other areas in Sicily were embracing innovations inspired by the Istituto Regionale della Vite e del Vino (IRVV, “Regional Institute of Vine and Wine”).
Giuseppe Benanti, guided by the enologist Salvo Foti, had tried in the 1990s to bring Etna and his estate, Benanti, to the attention of greater Italy and the world. But this was not enough. As is the case so often in history, and particularly the history of Sicily, it took outsiders to bring attention and value to local realities. During the 1990s central and northern Italian wine producers had experienced remarkable growth and profitability. Beginning in the late 1990s they invested in Italy’s south, looking for sources of lower-cost yet dependable quality wine. For example, the Piedmont producer Angelo Gaja’s 1996 purchase of vineyards on the Tuscan coast, for what would become Ca’ Marcanda, created a stampede of investment. Etna, due perhaps to its reputation for defective wines, remained unnoticed. It was an uncut diamond that needed appraisal, recutting, polishing, and marketing to the rest of the world.
In 2000 Etna’s wine industry awakened suddenly. Foreign attention and capital arrived. The newcomers Frank Cornelissen from Belgium, Marc de Grazia from Florence, and Andrea Franchetti from Rome bought vineyards on Etna and became evangelists of its potential. From 2003 to 2004, financial help from the regional government of Sicily helped Sicilians plant vineyards on Etna. A planting boom followed in 2005, 2006, and 2007. By 2007 de Grazia had ignited the excitement and enthusiasm of mainland Italian investor-producers through the power of his words and the flavors of his wine, convincing people that there was some truth to his contention that Etna was the Burgundy of the Mediterranean. In 2008 Franchetti created and sponsored the wine fair Le Contrade dell’Etna, Etna’s coming-out-to-the-world party. It has been a great success. Every year since then, it has brought nearly all of the region’s producers and many journalists from around the world under a single roof.
Mount Etna is an amazing phenomenon and terroir. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps. At the highest elevations for viticulture, its climate is like that of northern Italy. As one goes down the slopes, the climate becomes gradually more Sicilian. On the slopes, vineyards have different growing environments due to exposure, elevation, and weather conditions that become increasingly local, particularly during the growing season. Underneath this in-the-round vineyard stairway to the sky is an active volcano. The volcano makes the Etna vineyards an evolving terroir. Eruptions change it by ejecting lava, pumice, ash, and steam. To understand the raw material of Etna wine production, Etna grapes, we must recognize how four dynamic forces determine their growing environment: altitude, exposure, wind, and the earth-creating force of volcanic eruption.
At higher altitudes not only is average temperature lower, but there is more day-to-night temperature variation, which preserves grape aroma and resulting wine acidity. These conditions are particularly helpful for white wines. For varieties used for white wine or rosato production, vineyards reach as high as eleven hundred meters (3,609 feet) and in rare circumstances up to thirteen hundred meters (4,265 feet). At such elevations there is more rain, and the combination of winter cold and humidity can result in snowfall. Most fungi can live within only a narrow temperature range, usually between 60°F and 80°F. High-elevation climatic conditions not only reduce the types of mold that can grow but can kill molds that develop during the summer months. The cold also signals the vine to rest and harbor carbohydrates in its roots. The first warm temperatures of the spring induce it to come back to vegetative life. The buds turn from brown to green, and the sap moves up the vine, bringing carbohydrates to the top of the plant until the top of the vine can produce its own carbohydrates through photosynthesis. As a result, vines come out of dormancy, grow, and produce a single harvest simultaneously. This marginal growing environment yields light crops of grapes per vine. Provided that they are not damaged by mold and have achieved full ripeness, these grapes are quality raw material for winemaking. Since they are harvested at low temperatures, the resulting wine acidity is higher, giving the wine stability, longevity, and length. At elevations below nine hundred meters (2,953 feet), the warmer temperatures are helpful for red wines, fully maturing the grape skins so that they can release more pigment and developing the tannins in both the skins and the seeds as much as possible. Red wines wear high alcohol better than whites do. They are more than 13 percent alcohol, while whites from the higher elevations are usually several percentage points lower. The expression of elevation is easiest to understand between Linguaglossa and Randazzo on the north face of Etna. Two roads link the towns. Quota 600 runs at a lower elevation, approximately six hundred meters (1,969 feet). The higher road, Quota Mille, is at one thousand meters (3,281 feet). It used to be commonly believed that the best vineyards for red varieties were below Quota 600. Now, because of either the warming of the climate or the higher-ripening aspirations of modern-day producers, the sweet spot for great Nerello Mascalese wine lies between these two roads. Due to the fame of Etna red wines, risk taking to make great ones is a feature of the competition among producers. Many are willing to take the risks of greater vintage variation to achieve longer hang time and more maturation of the grape skins to try to make more concentrated yet more elegant wines. Above Quota Mille, exceptional red wines can be made only with very low yields harvested very late (mid-November) in propitious (dry and sunny) conditions. Otherwise these thousand-meter-plus vineyards are best suited to white varieties, such as the traditional favorite, Carricante, or the earlier-ripening Chardonnay.
Exposure—the interaction between wind, sun, and slope—has important consequences that create a kaleidoscope of growing environments. As winds move up hillsides, they cool the ambient temperature, and the moisture they bear condenses as rain. The amount of precipitation increases up to the summit. The Nebrodi Mountains only partially protect Etna’s northern flank from the rain the maestrale brings during the autumn and winter months. During the entire year this wind vaults over the Nebrodi Mountains and delivers moisture to Etna’s summit. Because it moves between the towns of Solicchiata and Randazzo, the subsoil between them benefits from the water that drains from the summit. Unlike the eastern slope of Etna, where rainfall quickly collects and drains into the Ionian Sea, here drainage is more gradual and hence more diffuse. The lava underneath the soil absorbs the water. During the growing season, this humidity rises up through the soil to the roots. This rich, deep store of water stabilizes growth during the warm, dry summers.
For a given elevation, however, the average yearly rainfall is highest on the southeast flank of Etna, roughly between the towns of Sant’Alfio and Nicolosi. From the northwest the maestrale blows the steam from erupting vents to the southeast. This creates some shadow, reducing evaporation. Principally during the autumn and winter, the easterly (grecale) and southeasterly wind (scirocco) blowing off the Ionian Sea bring rain to the eastern and southeastern flanks, which have no mountain or hill protection whatsoever. While the southeastern and eastern exposures are wetter than the other flanks of Etna, they benefit from the rays of the morning sun, which cause an early onset of photosynthesis and reduce fungus growth. This makes this area extremely interesting for quality wine production. These conditions also tip this stretch more toward white wine production, which is more compatible with humid conditions than red wine grape production. The driest area of the mountain is the western exposure, followed by the southwestern and northwestern ones. One lesson to be learned from any discussion of exposures and elevations is that vintage quality varies enormously on Etna. Even if the vintage gets rained on in one part of Etna, harvests in other sectors are likely to be rain-free.
Western exposures are generally the worst for quality wine grape maturation. They get direct sunlight after the ground has had time to heat up all day. In the middle of the afternoon, the ambient temperature just above the soil is at its highest. This increases the likelihood of grape skin sunburn. Photosynthesis also gets off to a late start in the morning, because the sun warms up western exposures last.
Throughout its history Etna has unleashed lava flows that have wiped out vineyards and towns. The tonguelike shapes of lava flows are visible to the eye only when the flows are geologically recent. As they grow older by thousands of years, the flows become invisible. Nonetheless, they create a patchwork of terroirs that is relevant to any discussion of Etna’s contradas. In 1981 a lava flow buried the famous vineyards of the Allegracori contrada. Young flows are barren rock pasteurized by heat. The surface of cooled flows takes hundreds of years to erode into soil and develop humus, therefore becoming suitable for vines. This occurs more slowly at higher altitudes because, among other reasons, there is less microbial activity there. The lava eventually erodes to sand rich in potassium and other minerals. As organic matter created by the growth of micro-organisms and later by plants and animals enriches the land, the soil becomes very fertile. Many swaths of the western and northwestern slopes of Etna are barren rockscapes without enough topsoil for extensive vineyard development. These areas have been the farthest from commercial centers and the least agriculturally developed. Over the centuries, the lack of human intervention combined with below-average precipitation for the Etna region helped retard the erosion of lava and therefore the development of topsoils here.
Etna has many active vents that are erupting constantly. They shoot out ash, pumice, and glassy black fragments that vulcanists call lapilli (the plural of lapillus) and Etnaens call ripiddu. The ripiddu, which rain down like hail, can be blown surprisingly far. According to Francesco Gambino of the Gambino wine estate in Piedimonte, one or two centimeters (0.4 or 0.8 inches) of ripiddu are deposited every one or two years at his property at eight hundred meters (2,625 feet) on the northeast flank. At the vents, deposits of ripiddu build up into cones. On a drive around the mountain, one can see many of these cones, some as small as little hills, others as large as small mountains. Their soil is deep and porous, with numerous tiny air pockets. It is perfect for vines, because their roots can go deep for water and oxygen. Biondi’s M.I. Etna Rosso comes from the grapes of an east-facing vineyard on Monte Ilice, a classic conical volcanic hill. Benanti’s Serra della Contessa Etna Rosso comes from a vineyard on an old conical hill.
In 2008, when Salvo Foti first showed ripiddu in the palm of his hand to Fran and me, he described how it contained an electric charge that rapidly unlocks the fertility of the soil. Foti was not talking about hundreds of years of waiting. He was telling us that the nutritional benefits were instantly available to vine roots. This attribution of his to ripiddu remained mysterious to me until I met Marco Perciabosco in April 2012. Perciabosco is one of Sicily’s leading pedologists. He is the director of the Department of Agricultural Infrastructure Interventions for Sicily’s Regional Department of Agriculture and has overseen research on the viticultural capacity of Etna soils. His research team had discovered that pyroclastic deposits of lapilli, cinders, and scoriae were pervasive in Etna soils. Perciabosco described how these deposits were sandy, well aerated, and ideal for the development of vine root structure. They created an environment conducive to chemical reactions. At this point in his explanation he held up his hand, pointing the index finger to the sky. As if he were Ali Baba opening my cave of consternation, he uttered the word allophane. This constituent, he told me, is an amorphous clay mineral derived from volcanic cinders. It has cation exchange properties that are essential for plant growth. Volcanic ash containing allophane can transform volcanic soils into fertile soils much more rapidly than the many centuries required for the breakdown of other types of volcanic deposits. High percentages of loam are common to allophane-rich soils. Depending on where and to what degree the flows were pyroclastic, Etna has varying amounts of allophane throughout its volcanic soils. For example, in the vicinity of the village of Nicolosi at seven hundred meters (2,297 feet) on the southeastern slope, the soils are mature and fertile. This area was subject to pyroclastic flow from an eruption in 1669. In adjacent areas, which were subject during the same period to lava flows that did not include pyroclastic ashes, the lava remains hard and there is little soil formation.2 Four years before I learned of it, Foti had been referring to allophane!
Wind too plays a role in Etna’s soil fertility. Volcanic ash is as fine as dust. Ejected from vents at the top of Etna, it becomes airborne. The maestrale and ponente winds blow it onto the volcano’s southeast and eastern flanks. During the winter the black ash is easy to see, since it coats the snow. It can cause flight cancellations at Fontanarossa Airport, which is south of Catania along the coast. The soil between Viagrande and Trecastagni contains much ash. Because the ash is so fine and loose, it contributes to fertility within a shorter time period than either pumice or lava would. Older vines can send their roots deep into the ash to find water.
Though it hardly rains on Etna during the summer, irrigation is not needed there. Soil depth varies from site to site. The lava underneath acts like a sponge, absorbing water during the winter months. As a result, the vines rarely lack water. Where lava flows are oldest, the soil depth tends to be greater. Deep volcanic soils allow vine roots to go deep, ensuring they’ll find water. The deeper the soil, the more stable vine growth becomes. Due to the rapid-draining nature of volcanic soil, winegrowers can enter their vineyards within three or four hours after the cessation of rain. The high vigor of mature volcanic soils can be restrained by leaving ground cover until July and then disking it into the soil. Organic material, particularly material containing nitrogen, is added periodically to balance the naturally high levels of potassium in the soil. This is particularly important for immature volcanic soils. When planted in alberello, vines have a density between eight and ten thousand per hectare (19,768 and 24,711 per acre). The freestanding nature of alberello helps them withstand the high winds to which the mountain can be subjected. At high elevations where ripening is difficult, low training becomes an asset. In cool conditions, alberello’s 360 degree exposure to light aids ripening. In the sun, Etna’s black soil absorbs the radiation readily and becomes warm. The vines can bask in a layer of heat that builds up above the soil during the day.
More and more Etna producers are printing contrada names on their wine labels. Beginning with the 2011 Le Contrade dell’Etna, Franchetti arranged the participating producers by contrada location. The fundamental force on Etna that determines the confines of contradas is lava flows. The lava flows (in Sicilian dialect sciare, the plural of sciara) have distinctive tonguelike shapes and bear descriptive names such as Sciara Nuova (“New Lava Flow”). Former ownership, usage, or particular notoriety can determine how the contradas are named. Feudo di Mezzo means “half the fief.” Guardiola means “guardhouse.” Malpasso means “difficult or unpleasant to pass.” The contrada concept arrives organically from the geological and social history of Etna. It is a powerful concept.
Lava flows radiate down from Etna’s summit, more or less, like the spokes of a wheel from a hub. I say “more or less” because Etna is a complex of summits and depressions. All Etna soil rests on or directly derives from lava that has flowed and hardened for thousands of years, along with ejected pumice, lapilli, and windblown volcanic ash. There are lava flows upon lava flows upon lava flows. The hardened flows on the surface each have a different age and different soil constituents.
Certain Etna producers support contrada labeling because it connects Etna to the concept of terroir and, from a marketing standpoint, models Etna on Burgundy, the wine zone with which the concept of terroir is most associated. De Grazia was the first to publically promote the connection between Burgundy crus and Etna contradas and between contradas and lava flows. He maintains that each contrada is different and results in different wines because each lava flow has different mineral constituents. According to Salvatore Giuffrida—the consulting agronomist for Valenti, Gambino, and the IRVV—exposure, soil depth, and elevation have a far greater impact on vines and wine flavor than mineral differences between lava flows.
Tenuta delle Terre Nere, de Grazia’s winery, has for several years put contrada names on its labels. With the 2008 vintage, Passopisciaro, Franchetti’s winery, also began naming its wines by contrada origin. Printing contrada names on front labels only became legal on wines of the 2011 vintage, but de Grazia and Franchetti were not challenged before then. There is a saying in Italy: “Sometimes what is not allowed is only in advance of the law.” For example, the Super-Tuscans were tolerated as extralegal vini da tavola until Law 164/92 absorbed them into the legal system for labeling Italian wines. In effect, de Grazia and Franchetti were agents who pushed wine regulations to evolve in a positive direction. A few producers used contrada names as brand names prior to the new disciplinare. For example, Benanti makes an Etna Bianco Superiore called Pietramarina, which he has registered as a trademark. Pietra Marina is the name of a contrada in the comune of Castiglione di Sicilia. Benanti sources the grapes for this wine from the comune of Milo, which is twenty kilometers (twelve miles) due south of the contrada. The new law will allow producers with vineyards in Pietra Marina to use its name on labels for all types of Etna wines. Despite several historic inconsistencies, contrada labeling is a powerful idea. For consumers of Etna wine and for everyone involved in the industry, it begins the process of connecting place to wine flavor.
Red varieties accounted for 94 percent of the vines planted in the province of Catania as of 2009. The Etna viticultural area is by far the principal one of that province. The fact that international varieties account for less than 5 percent of the hectares planted demonstrates the strong traditions of the province, particularly Etna. Nerello Mascalese is the principal red variety on the volcano. Local farmers working on the Piana di San Leonardello (“Plain of San Leonardello”) near the town of Mascali are said to have made the selection centuries ago. In older vineyards, Nerello Mascalese is interplanted with small amounts of Nerello Cappuccio and a smattering of other varieties, red and white, such as Grenache, Merlot, Sangiovese, Carricante, Catarratto, and Minnella. In newer plantings where the intention is to make a varietal wine, varieties are usually in separate blocks or rows. As of 2009 in the province of Catania, Nerello Mascalese accounted for 79 percent of the vines planted. Nerello Cappuccio accounted for only 0.72 percent. Nerello Mascalese has trouble ripening above 950 meters (3,117 feet). As its site-sensitive nature has become more evident and the quality of Nerello wines has improved, interest in this grape has accelerated rapidly. Nerello Cappuccio remains in the background and is unlikely to move out of it. It adds violet color and some texture to Nerello Mascalese wine. On its own it makes less complex and ageworthy wines than Nerello Mascalese.
Carricante is the principal white variety of Etna. Above 950 meters (3,117 feet), it takes over as the dominant variety until it meets its ripening limit at about twelve hundred meters (3,937 feet). As of 2009, it accounted for only 4 percent of the vines planted in the province of Catania. Interest in Carricante, Etna’s principal white variety, has increased recently, but there need to be more examples before we can determine whether Carricante varietal wines can be complex, concentrated, and site specific and whether they function best as still or sparkling wines or can be successful as both. Catarratto is allowed to supplement Carricante in Etna Bianco and Etna Bianco Superiore. As of 2009, Comune and Lucido together account for 0.7 percent of Catania vines. From an organoleptic point of view, I am not able to tell the difference between a pure Carricante and a Carricante-dominated Carricante-Catarratto blend.
There are rare local varieties interplanted with both red and white grapevines, principal among them Minnella (0.1 percent of vines planted in Catania), a white variety with elliptical berries. In red wines, Minnella may have been used to add sugar to musts, as Viognier has traditionally been added to Syrah must in the Côte Rôtie blend. Benanti makes a varietal Minnella wine. It is nothing more than a good light white wine. Some Grenache Noir, which Italians commonly call Alicante, is planted in the vicinity of the town of Randazzo. French merchants during the nineteenth century may have encouraged the use of certain varieties to improve the wines that they purchased. Miscellaneous unknown grapes both red and white, some of which may be French in origin, are referred to as francisi. During the 1990s and early 2000s some Etna producers, such as Cottanera, planted international varieties.
The historic process of vinification on Etna, pestimbotta in palmento, involved fermenting the juice in vats without skin contact after the initial pressing of grapes underfoot. This process produced white and rosato wines. Red wine was made using skin contact in the vats for several days. The juice was drained from the vats into large chestnut barrels, where it completed the fermentation. Etna’s traditional rosato wines were mostly for home consumption, though little is produced today. Nerello Mascalese, because of its light pigmentation and high acidity, is excellent materia prima for rosato.
No one in Sicily vinifies in a palmento today. Italian laws for food production forbid the use of surfaces such as volcanic rock for vinification because associated sanitary conditions do not meet official standards. For red wine production, French-derived modern fermentation and maturation techniques prevail. Etna producers most commonly use barriques for maturing red wines. Consumers who would like to experience a well-made Nerello Mascalese that is the result of traditional Italian wine production technology should seek out the wines of Calabretta. Calabretta matures its red wines in fifty to seventy-five hectoliter (1,321 to 1,981 gallon) Slavonian oak casks for thirty-six to forty-two months. Traditional Barolo and Brunello di Montalcino wines mature in much the same way. Franchetti and Graci are pursuing the same pure, classic Italian style. This maturation technique emphasizes the length of the wine, particularly the length of its finish, over depth of pigmentation and fatness in the middle of the mouth.
Wine critics and U.S. consumers, however, tend to prefer red wines that have matured in new 225 liter (fifty-nine gallon) French barrique. Wine producers have to balance the relative importance of their personal preferences, those of wine critics, and those of their consumers. Even so indigenous an enologist as Foti tends to use large French barriques for many of his clients’ red wines. Acting as a consultant, he has to interpret their tastes and needs. However, the wines from his own estate, I Vigneri, demonstrate that his personal approach to winemaking defies what is standard. Federico Curtaz at Tenuta di Fessina steers a middle course by maturing in a blend of containers varying in size and material from thirty-six hectoliter (951 gallon) oak casks to tonneaux to small stainless steel tanks.
Carricante is easily overwhelmed by fermentation and maturation in new-oak barrique. It has little varietal smell, and although it has plenty of invigorating acidity, it lacks body. Many tasters claim to smell and taste minerals in it. I sympathize with their efforts to identify the ineffable. Traditionally the white grapes of Etna were trod, and even if skins were added to the fermenting must, the contact time was brief, perhaps one day. Today the white wines of Etna featuring Carricante typically have no skin contact, are cold-fermented with the aid of selected yeasts, usually in stainless steel tanks, and are bottled within a year of harvest. Carricante is rarely fermented or matured in barrique. Barone di Villagrande and Benanti have expertise with the variety. Both have experimented with barrel fermentation of Carricante and maturation on the lees and have integrated what they have learned into their current wines.
The Italian government officially recognized the Etna DOC in 1968, making it Sicily’s first. The legislation recognized four basic typologies: Bianco, Bianco Superiore, Rosso, and Rosato. Bianco requires at least 60 percent Carricante, with up to 40 percent Catarratto. Other white varieties, such as Trebbiano, Minnella, and other nonaromatics from Sicily, can amount to up to 15 percent. The Bianco Superiore typology requires that Carricante be at least 80 percent of the blend and that all the wine’s grapes originate in Milo, a township high on the eastern slopes of Etna. The remaining 20 percent, consistent with the permissible varieties for the Etna Bianco typology, must be sourced from Sicily. Etna Rosso and Rosato must contain at least 80 percent Nerello Mascalese and a maximum of 20 percent Nerello Cappuccio. Nonaromatic white grapes can constitute up to 10 percent of the Rosso and Rosato blends.
A ministerial decree signed on September 27, 2011, modified the original Etna DOC regulations. The new disciplinare lists 133 contradas with defined borders within the DOC. This will allow for the use of their names on the labels of wines, beginning with the 2011 vintage, made from grapes sourced from the named contrada. The decree also recognizes a Riserva category for Etna Rosso and a Spumante category for Etna. The Etna Spumante regulations allow for rosato and sparkling white typologies. The varietal blend for Etna Spumante must be at least 60 percent Nerello Mascalese, with the balance being varieties allowed for cultivation in the region of Sicily. The Spumante regulations require refermentation in bottle, conformity with the metodo classico process, and no less than eighteen months on the lees in bottle before disgorgement. The new decree left maximum yields for Etna Bianco, Rosso, and Rosato at nine metric tons per hectare (8,030 pounds per acre), the limit set by the 1968 law, but did not specify one for Etna Spumante. The maximum yield for Rosso Riserva is set at eight metric tons per hectare (7,137 pounds per acre). The aging period before market release for Rosso Riserva is four years, at least twelve months of which must be in wooden containers. This has to occur within the Etna DOC. There are no such requirements for Etna Rosso, Rosato, Bianco, or Bianco Superiore. In June 2012, the consortium of Etna producers (Consorzio per la Tutela dei Vini Etna) agreed to reduce the yields of Etna Rosso vineyards to eight metric tons per hectare beginning with the 2012 harvest. It will ask the Ministry of Agriculture in Rome to amend the 2011 disciplinare to officially lower the maximum yield of Etna Rosso. The new disciplinare and this proposed amendment demonstrate that Etna producers are aware that the world is watching them. They know that opportunity is knocking at their door, and they want to take advantage of the moment.
Barone di Villagrande.The Nicolosi family’s presence at the Barone di Villagrande estate in Milo, at 650 meters (2,133 feet) on the eastern flank of Etna, reaches back to the eighteenth century. The family has a reputation for being model winegrowers. Paolo Nicolosi, in 1869, was the first producer on Etna to process white grapes separately and differently from red. Carmelo Nicolosi Asmundo was quick to raise his family from the ashes of World War II by bottling its production in 1948. The 1968 Etna DOC disciplineare, drafted largely by his son Carlo Nicolosi Asmundo, a professor at the University of Catania’s school of enology, made special provision for the Bianco Superiore typology. Since Barone di Villagrande has been the only noteworthy producer of this wine, the appellation could be seen as a monument to its leading and exemplary role. Carmelo was also the first producer on Etna to install refrigeration equipment in the 1950s. Although Marco De Bartoli, in his capacity as the president of the IRVV, selected Carlo in 1993 to be an administrative councilor of the IRVV, Barone di Villagrande did not reach the 2000s with the recognition that it deserved, despite the continuing excellence of its wines. With Carlo sidelined by a stroke in recent years, his wife, Maria Valeria, with a degree in microbiology and a technical degree in wine production, provides a strong foundation for the growing leadership of Marco, their son, a trained enologist. The best wine of the estate is the Etna Bianco Superiore, 100 percent Carricante. Its pale silver color implies its lightness and elegance in the mouth. The oak flavors of the wood-matured Legno di Conzo, an Etna Bianco Superiore, overwhelm its Carricante. Maybe the wine will grow out of the oak with more bottle age. Though white wine is its calling card, Barone di Villagrande produces just as much red wine. Its Etna Rosso is one of the best wines for cost on Etna. Sciara is its more concentrated brother, finished in small instead of large barrel.
Benanti.In 1988 the Catania businessman Giuseppe Benanti decided that he could make better wine than the local wineries. Given the abysmal average quality of Etna wine of his day, this was not a great challenge. He has done much more. In the 1990s he was the most visible example of what Etna could be. Starting off with family vineyards as his base, he made his most important white wine, Pietramarina, an Etna Bianco Superiore, with grapes from the comune of Milo grown at more than 920 meters (3,018 feet). For several years after 2002 the wine Pietramarina went through a phase that included fermentation and maturation in large wooden cask with lees stirring. Now it is made without oak contact and is better this way. It is a wine that can improve with age in bottle. Benanti’s Biancodicaselle, a mix of Carricante from the Caselle contrada in Milo and from the Cavaliere contrada on the south slope, is released closer to the vintage and is likely to be fruitier in taste. His Etna Rosso is also consistently fine. His two contrada red wines from the north face of Etna are Rossodiverzella (Verzella is a contrada), accessible and soft in flavor, and Rovittello (named for a town), which is more complex and astringent and a bit wild. The Etna Rosso Serra della Contessa comes from grapes from an old vineyard at Benanti’s estate at Viagrande. The vineyard is on the slope of an ancient spent volcanic cone. The 2000 vintage, which I tasted in 2011, and the 2003 vintage, tasted in 2008, had lots of spice, earthiness, and rich textures. The excellent condition of the 2000 Etna Rosso Serra della Contessa demonstrates that this wine merits long cellaring after release. One surprise from Benanti is the metodo classico Noblesse, which shows that Carricante can make excellent, well-balanced sparkling wine. Benanti has also invested in land in the Pachino area, where he makes two wines, Il Drappo and Majora, and buys grapes and wines from the Mueggen area of Pantelleria to make a Moscato Passito di Pantelleria, Coste di Mueggen. Foti, Benanti’s enological consultant until 2011, played a pivotal role in the success of the estate.
Binoche.Piero Portale’s wine estate, Binoche, near Biancavilla at 600 to 730 meters (1,969 to 2,395 feet), proves that on the southwest flank of Etna, clean, focused Nerello Mascalese, loaded with wood spices and cherry, can be made. Unfortunately, he makes only eight thousand bottles of it. The label bears the words Masseria Setteporte, which means “Farm in [the contrada] Setteporte.” Given Portale’s sixteen and a half hectares (forty-one acres) of vineyards, he has the potential to make a lot more wine.
Biondi.Ciro Biondi brought his family winery, famous during the early twentieth century, back to life in 1999. It is a spectacular site in the town of Trecastagni. His jewel is an east-facing two hectare (five acre) vineyard clinging to the side of a tall black cinder cone, Mount Ilice. The elevation is between seven and nine hundred meters (2,297 and 2,953 feet). The slope is so steep, at fifty degrees, that winches with cables are needed to transport material up and down it. From Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio harvested from this slope, Biondi makes an Etna Rosso named M.I., the initials of the mountain. From Monte Ilice and four other vineyards nearby, he makes Outis Etna Rosso and Outis Etna Bianco. Odysseus identified himself as Outis (“Nobody”) to the voracious Cyclops Polyphemus as he escaped from the one-eyed giant’s cave on Etna in Homer’s Odyssey. The Biondi red wines are pale. At first taste they seem light, but they gradually unfold with time in the air or in the bottle.
Bonaccorsi.Alice Bonaccorsi says she “follows the fruit” to find her wines, which are branded as ValCerasa even though her winery name is officially Bonaccorsi. At our first visit to the estate in 2008, the first wine that caught my attention was an IGT Sicilia rosato, Rosso Relativo. To make this wine, Bonaccorsi allows the harvested bunches of Nerello Mascalese to rest in a cool area for twelve to twenty hours. This is a passive way to cold-macerate the grapes. She relies on ambient temperature and yeast for fermentation. The result is an amber-tinted rosato that has a handmade, artisanal character. Her Etna Bianco remains on the lees for twelve months, giving it more body than most. She makes a wine called Noir, which is an Etna Bianco fermented on its skins as if it were a red wine. It is surprisingly dark for a white wine. The taste is rounder and nuttier than that of other whites. She makes a cru Etna Rosso wine, CruciMonaci, which is concentrated and elegant. Never far from Bonaccorsi is her husband, Rosario Pappalardo, who works alongside his wife in the winery and focuses on administration and marketing.
Cavaliere.Like Binoche, Cavaliere is a notable member of the small enclave of producers on the southwest flank of Etna. Proprietor Margherita Platania has twenty hectares (forty-nine acres) of vineyards from eight hundred to one thousand meters (2,625 to 3,281 feet). They surround a nineteenth-century palmento and farm structure. The site looks every bit like a Burgundy clos except for the patchwork created by the outlines of black basalt walls separating small alberello vineyards. Though the Platania d’Antoni family founded the estate in 1880, Margherita has only recently taken on the challenge of making it a player in the twenty-first century. The Millemetri (named for the elevation of the vines, one thousand meters [3,281 feet]) Etna Bianco is clean and focused. The Millemetri Etna Rosato is fruity and fresh. Older vines provide the Nerello grapes for Don Blasco Etna Rosso, while younger ones supply Millemetri Etna Rosso. The Don Blasco has more depth of flavor, but the Millemetri Rosso has more fruit. Cavaliere’s production is fewer than ten thousand bottles per year, but this could be much greater.
Cornelissen.During his initial visit, in 2000, Cornelissen made his first Etna wine. Three years later he moved to the comune of Solicchiata to pursue his dream on a full-time basis. He had no technical training in winemaking. Not one to take small bites of the apple, he took on the challenge of making Etna white and red wines using indigenous yeast, skin contact for whites, and amphorae. He also does not add sulfites. After making a mix of unusual, faulty, and spectacular wines, he recognizes that he is constantly learning. Nature leads, and he learns from nature. He is not against scientific inquiry and reasoning. He increasingly consults scientific literature for answers. For his white wines, his current preference is Grecanico. He believes that Carricante is “the worst variety” because it is “all acidity.” On the other hand, he declares Nerello Mascalese to be “a great variety.” Some of his vineyards are outside the Etna DOC borders. For this reason he does not bottle his wines under the Etna DOC. His basic wines, white and red, are called Contadino Bianco and Rosso. Instead of referring to vintages, he identifies his wines by edition number. For example, Contadino 7 is the seventh time of making, or edition of, the wine. The grapes all come from the 2009 harvest, but the vintage is not printed on the label. The white Contadino 7 was dark gold, slightly fizzy in the glass, nutty in the nose, and dry in the mouth, with a hopslike smell in the finish. The red Contadino 7, made from a blend of grapes, had light red fruit and was pale, high in acidity, and very astringent. Using the best lots of Contadino Rosso, Cornelissen makes MunJebel Rosso. The MunJebel 6, a blend of 2008 and 2009 wines (it is traditional to blend vintages here, according to Cornelissen), had moderate red color, strong cherry fruit, high acidity, and fine astringency. He also produces a MunJebel Bianco, a blend of 50 percent Grecanico and 15 percent Coda di Volpe (a Campania variety) with Catarratto and Carricante. Magma is made with fruit sourced from Cornelissen’s highest vineyards. In some issues of Magma he makes several different single-vineyard versions. In 2010 the (2008) Magma 7 was pale red and very spicy in the nose, with a palate dominated by astringency. “From 2005 on,” Cornelissen explained, “the grapes for this wine have developed a production memory. They now know what to do.” While he began with more traditional clay amphorae for fermentation, he now ferments the wine in food-grade plastic tubs and then matures it in epoxy-lined clay amphorae buried in his new cantina. Cornelissen challenges us to assess conventional preconceptions of good, bad, and great wine.
Fessina.Silvia Maestrelli, who owns the wine estate Villa Petriolo in Tuscany, and her husband, Roberto Silva, have teamed up with the Piedmont consulting agronomist and winemaker Federico Curtaz. In 2007 they purchased a seven hectare (seventeen acre) vineyard in Rovittello at 650 meters (2,133 feet), giving it the name Tenuta di Fessina. The vines grow in a thin layer of soil over the basalt stretching between two lava flows. The farm manager, Nino Farfaglia, who personally maintains the vineyard year-round, was born in the home overlooking it and has tended these vines since boyhood. The important wine here is Il Musmeci Etna Rosso DOC, named in honor of the old owner-grower who sold the property to Tenuta di Fessina. The first vintage of Musmeci, the 2007, had too much new oak. The 2008, paler and expressing cherry and mint in the nose, with fine astringency, had a better balance between oak and fruit, a more elegant texture, and a longer finish. Curtaz describes his Nerello Mascalese as a vertical wine, bridging the structure of Nebbiolo and the silk and spice of Pinot Noir. It is, he says, a modern-style wine with backbone (nerbo in Italian). A new initiative as of the 2009 vintage is an Etna Bianco, A’ Puddara, sourced from a thousand-meter-high (3,281-foot-high) vineyard on the southwest flank of Etna in the vicinity of Santa Maria di Licodia. Curtaz put its Carricante juice in a new thirty-four hectoliter (898 gallon) oak barrel, allowing native yeasts to carry the fermentation. The big barrel exerts less of an influence on the finished wine, letting the pear and straw aromas emerge. In the mouth, astringency follows the initial acidity, giving the wine length and the structure to potentially age well in bottle. Curtaz calls himself and Maestrelli “students of Etna.” He communicates a genuine attachment to this unique vinicultural zone. For Curtaz, the challenge for Sicilian winegrowers is to find and express their own identity, “to rediscover the pureness of their raw material and place.”
Graci.Alberto Graci is sparing no expense to make Etna wines at the level of quality of his paradigm, Giacomo Conterno Monfortino Barolo. He has taken the risk of planting a vineyard on its own roots. In the winery, all containers are made of wood. He uses no barriques, only oak vats and casks. He bottles Quota 600 Etna Rosso, made with grapes from his vineyards at six hundred meters (1,969 feet), and Quota 1000, made with grapes from a hundred-year-old vineyard between one thousand and eleven hundred meters (3,281 and 3,609 feet). When we visited Graci’s highest vineyard in the fall of 2010, there were cows wandering in it, munching on his crop. As we explored the vineyard, he chased the cows into the woods. A negotiation with the cowherd, hatchet at the ready, ensued. This experience gave new meaning to the term heroic viticulture.
Passopisciaro.Alessio Planeta has likened Andrea Franchetti, the owner of the Passopisciaro winery, to the German actor Klaus Kinski in his portrayal of Fitzcarraldo in Werner Herzog’s movie of that name. In the movie, Fitzcarraldo has a plan to haul a steamboat out of one river at a point in the Peruvian Amazon where two rivers nearly meet and to carry it over a mountain to reach his destination on the other river. The plan is crazy, but Fitzcarraldo’s vision, energy, and self-belief nearly make the impossible possible. Franchetti’s journey to Passopisciaro is as difficult to dream up as Fitzcarraldo’s plan. He comes from a famous, wealthy Roman family with ties to France’s Rothschilds. One of his ancestors, Leopoldo Franchetti, wrote a seminal post–Italian unification analysis of conditions in Sicily. How Leopoldo understood Sicily influenced the Italian government’s subsequent policies concerning the island. During the 1990s, in the spirit of Fitzcarraldo, Franchetti nearly succeeded in transforming a farm, Tenuta di Trinoro, in Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia, an area unknown for quality wine, into a second coming of Tenuta San Guido, the producer who made Sassicaia in an area known for mosquitoes and Tuscan cowboys, called butteri. His problem has been one of timing, not effort—but that is another story altogether. Tenuta di Trinoro continues its Fitzcarraldian efforts. Franchetti, at the turn of the twenty-first century in search of a high-elevation vineyard where maturation would take place not in the heat of summer but in the cool of autumn, came upon Passopisciaro, a village on the north face of Etna. In 2000 he bought land there at one thousand meters (3,281 feet). Confusingly, he gave his estate the same name as that of the village. First he planted two varieties, Petit Verdot and Cesanese d’Affile, which he had planted at Trinoro. As if staking his claim, he called the wine they made Franchetti. In addition to being his surname, Franchetti evokes the French-influenced flavors of the wine. The pitch-black wine had an inscrutable aroma and was so thick and concentrated in the mouth that I ate it as well as drank it. It is red Bordeaux multiplied by four. But after several years of Franchetti making wine on Etna, it was as if the mountain finally had its way. A dialogue between him and Nerello Mascalese developed. He began making Nerello Mascalese in a way that emphasized the purity of the variety and the place. His Etna Rossos are elegant, slender, and refined. He matures them in large cask. In his Etna wines the mountain speaks to me. My favorite Franchetti contrada wine is Rampante. It comes from his highest source, at more than one thousand meters (3,281 feet). The wine is pale red, with cherry, mint, and flowers in the nose, a high acidity, and a delicately astringent palate. The structure is based more on acidity than on astringency. A contrast is Porcaria, a wine whose acidity is high but hidden in the smells and textures of the midpalate. Its source is between seven and eight hundred meters (2,297 and 2,625 feet). Astringency dominates the palate. Chiappemacine and Sciaranuova each have their personalities, too subtle to express in words. Franchetti also makes a no-oak Chardonnay, coming from a vineyard between nine hundred and one thousand meters (2,953 and 3,281 feet). Franchetti, a man with Bordeaux-classified château wine in his veins, finds it amusing that Etna Chardonnay is his most-sold wine, at fifteen thousand bottles per year.
Russo.From the pianist and Passopisciaro native Giuseppe Russo come not only the sounds of classical music but also the flavors of Etna. After the death of his father, Girolamo, in 2003, he took over the management of the family estate. It now bears his name, but the labels still bear Girolamo’s. Initially Russo made his wines with the aid of Marc de Grazia, but now he has flown off on his own. His wines have become richer and more structured with each succeeding release. There is San Lorenzo, from a contrada of the same name at 750 meters (2,461 feet) in altitude with hundred-year-old vines, and Feudo, from contrada Feudo at 650 meters (2,133 feet) with sixty-year-old vines. San Lorenzo has a little more meat on its flavor skeleton than Feudo does. Another Etna Rosso, À Rina, which means “from sand” in dialect, is a blend of grapes from different contradas, matured in older casks. (No affiliation with Cantine Russo.)
Terre Nere.Marc de Grazia, a wine agent from Florence, got off the ground right at the critical time at Etna. His winery cellar opened for the 2007 harvest. With strong ties to the international wine trade, experience working with some of the most talented winemakers in Italy, and a new facility with enough room to house the production of his estate, Tenuta delle Terre Nere, he was able to get his wines immediately into the hands of journalists and out into the market. At the same time, he hosted a handful of fledgling Etna producers who had vineyards and grapes but nowhere to vinify them. He was a stepping stone in the evolution of Russo, Cavaliere, and Terre di Trente, which have since gone on to rely on other enological help, whether in new facilities of their own or other rented space. De Grazia, with the help of the young Sicilian enologist Calogero Statella, continues to house and make the wines of Binoche, Moganazzi, and Vulkaanreizen, among others. Vinifying so many lots of grapes from different locations has given him a lot of experience quickly. With some twenty-one hectares (fifty-two acres) of his own vineyards, he produces at least eight different wines. When he speaks, he equates the term contrada with cru. The word cru, which is used in many different contexts in Italy, is strongly associated with Burgundy, where it means a historic, high-performing vineyard. Just as there are many parcel owners within a Burgundy cru, the same is true in a contrada. Not all contradas, however, are crus, since many contradas have no reputation for wine production, let alone famous wine. De Grazia, astute marketer that he is, wants to imprint the association between contrada and cru on the wine world. In his view the one other area in the world that is most like the Côte de Nuits is between Solicchiata and Randazzo on Etna. That is where he owns property. He has more than eleven hectares (twenty-seven acres) at over 650 meters (2,133 feet) in Calderara Sottana. One hectare (two and a half acres) of this contains vines planted on their own roots. He bottles wine from these grapes separately, as La Vigna di Don Peppino (“Peppino’s Vineyard”). He also has vineyards in Guardiola, Feudo di Mezzo, and Santo Spirito. In a blind tasting of 2008 vintage wines in the summer of 2010, I found all the contrada wines powerful, even the mix-of-vineyards wine simply labeled Tenuta delle Terre Nere. I preferred the estate wine, the Santo Spirito, and the Feudo di Mezzo because of the minimal impact of new-toasted-oak contact on their flavor. La Vigna di Don Peppino, though it had more substance and body, also had the most oak flavor. As a group, the wines mimic the prevailing Burgundian phenomenon; simply explained: the more important the cru, the more important the oak. The wines that I tasted were freshly bottled. Oak needs time to integrate, several years at least.
Vigneri.Salvo Foti, like de Grazia, has guided new winegrowers who went on to become their own masters, specifically Ciro Biondi and Alice Bonaccorsi. Edomé, Romeo del Castello, and Il Cantante are a few of the growers for whom he now serves as an agronomist, enologist, and counselor. A new association within his I Vigneri consortium is Quincunx, which acts as the communications vehicle for its portfolio of member growers. The members are a handful of fledgling wine producers (including Mario and Manuela Paoluzi’s Custodi delle Vigne dell’Etna and Federico Graziani’s Profumo del Vulcano), alongside Foti’s more established client Gulfi and his own winery, also named I Vigneri. The message of Quincunx is built on Foti’s core mission: the protection of the land, the preservation of alberello viticulture, the cultivation of indigenous vine varieties, the humanity of the grower, and the conservation of Sicilian culture. The workers who tend the vines of Quincunx’s producers are also members of the Consorzio I Vigneri, a modern-day guild of winegrowers under the leadership of Foti’s right-hand man in the vineyards, Maurizio Pagano. Foti himself only owns about three hectares (seven acres) of vineyards and a clutch of small buildings on Etna. He produces four wines under the I Vigneri label. One is dedicated to the members of the Consorzio I Vigneri. It is simply called I Vigneri Etna Rosso DOC. Some of the bottles are divided among Vigneri members and others are available for purchase. The wine is fermented in cement vat before bottling. It is pure, direct, and powerful. Vinupetra is from half a hectare (one acre) of vines in Feudo di Mezzo. These vines’ average age is one hundred years. More than one thousand bottles are produced per year of this sturdy, fiery, oaky, textured, mentholated-cherry-cough-drop-flavored wine. A very special wine is Vinudilice (“Wine of the Ilex Holly Tree”). This is a clairette, a red wine so pale and delicate it appears to be a rosato but is not (the term is French). The vineyard its grapes come from is near Bronte at thirteen hundred meters (4,265 feet). It is called Bosco (“Woods”). Some of the vines are 120 years old. Foti harvests Grenache Noir and some Grecanico and Minnella here. Only a mule and human hands cultivate the soil. It is very cool and rainy here. The vines barely ripen their grapes. The wine, not usually sulfited, is about 12.5 percent alcohol. Vinujancu is a white wine that derives from another vineyard, Nave, at Bronte, this one at twelve hundred meters (3,937 feet). The 0.4 hectare (one acre) vineyard was replanted in 2005 with Carricante, Riesling Renano, Grecanico, and Minnella. Uncharacteristically for a white wine, it ferments in five hundred liter (132 gallon) open-top barrels. Foti doesn’t sulfite this wine. His approach to making Vinudilice is gentle and sensitive: no fining, no filtration, and racking by the phases of the moon. Only one thousand bottles are produced. When many were rushing to buy vineyard land on Etna in the years immediately following 2000, he bought little. The territory that matters most to him is in the world of ideas, tradition, culture, ethics, and the spirit of Etna. You can’t buy that.
Other recommended producers and their wines:
Al Cantarà O’Scuru O’Scuru Etna Rosso
Antichi Vinai Petralava Etna Rosso
Calabretta Etna Rosso
Calgano Arcuria Etna Rosso
Cantine Edomé Aitna Etna Rosso
Cantine Nicosia Fondo Filara Etna Bianco
Cottanera Etna Bianco
Cottanera Etna Rosso
Cottanera Grammonte
Cottanera Nume
Destro Aspide Etna Rosso
Destro Isolanuda Etna Bianco
Destro Sciarakè Etna Rosso
Don Saro Diòniso Etna Rosso
Duca di Salaparuta Vajasindi Làvico
Feudo Vagliasindi Etna Rosso
Firriato Cavanera Ripa di Scorciavacca Etna Bianco
Firriato Cavanera Rovo delle Coturnie Etna Rosso
Firriato Etna Rosso
Gambino Tifeo Etna Bianco
Giovi Pirao
Giuliemi Quantico Etna Bianco
Giuliemi Quantico Etna Rosso
Gulfi Reseca Nerello Mascalese
I Custodi delle Vigne dell’Etna Ante Etna Bianco
Il Cantante Etna Rosso
La Gelsomina Pinot Nero
Mannino Donna Letizia Etna Rosso
Moganazzi Don Michele Etna Rosso
Murgo Brut Rosé Spumante Metodo Classico
Murgo Brut Spumante Metodo Classico
Murgo Extra Brut Spumante Metodo Classico
Pietradolce Archineri Etna Rosso
Scilio Etna Bianco
Tasca d’Almerita Tascante Etna Rosso
Terre di Trente Nerello Mascalese
Valenti Poesia Rosato Nerello Mascalese
Valenti Puritani Nerello Mascalese
Vivera Salisire Etna Bianco
NORTHEAST COAST
Beyond Etna, the viticulture of the Val Demone extends along narrow coastal areas. These stretch north from Taormina, around Cape Peloro, and then west to the port of Termini Imerese. In ancient times the northeast coastal areas skirting the Peloritani Mountains were important sites for wine. Taormina, now a modern-day resort town, on the eastern coast between Messina (to the north) and Catania (to the south), produced a wine, Tauromenitan, famous in Roman times. Tomaso Fazello in his sixteenth-century history of Sicily praises the wines of Savoca, a hilltop town between Taormina and Messina facing the Ionian Sea, as “excellent and held in great esteem.”3 From vineyards near Milazzo came Mamertino, one of the greatest crus of the Roman Empire, ranked fourth in quality by the Roman historian and naturalist Pliny the Elder.4 While the narrow coastal plain that continues west along the northern coast from Patti to Termini Imerese has never been acclaimed for its wines, in the mid-twelfth century al-Idrisi, the Muslim geographer of King Roger II, recorded the intensive cultivation of vines at the present-day town of Caronia.5 Fazello also observed an abundance of vines in the vicinity of Caronia.6 According to Notizie e Studi Intorno Ai Vini ed Alle Uve d’Italia, published by Italy’s Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce in 1896, the wines of Patti, just west of Milazzo, along with those of Alì, south of Messina, were exported to Constantinople in the fifteenth century but subsequently lost their renown.7
Domenico Sestini, writing in 1812 about his visit to Sicily from 1774 to 1777, mentions “Sabboca” (almost certainly modern-day Savoca), Taormina, Milazzo, and Faro as sites of wine production.8 In a letter to a victualler supplying his fleet with wine, Admiral Horatio Nelson, writing from HMS Victory in 1804, praised the wines of Faro as “excellent.”9 Eight years later, J. Pater provided an in-depth overview of Sicily’s northeast coast in a letter to the editor of The Tradesman, a British commercial magazine.10 Milazzo and Messina were important ports for British warships, which had to be supplied with wine. Moreover, from these ports, wine was shipped to Malta for further exportation. Pater mentions that though a great deal of wine was produced in the vicinity of Milazzo—naming “Barcelona Pozzo di Gotto, Santa Lucia and Vinetico” (the modern-day Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Santa Lucia del Mela, and Venetico Superiore)—it was rarely exported, because of duties levied by Milazzo. He describes the wines of Milazzo as “strong bodied, and dry; but the general defect is that of having too deep a colour, and a sweetish taste.” The red wines of Faro, he continues, have a “deep or still deeper tinge than that of Melazzo [Milazzo].” He notes that the wines from areas south of Messina on the Ionian coast—in particular the towns of “Contessa, Galate, St. Steffano”—are as good as or better than those from north of Messina. St. Steffano corresponds to the present vicinity of Santo Stefano di Briga, where the modern-day Palari winery is located. Galati Superiore is just to the north. Pater mentions that the coastline south to Taormina “abounds in wine.” He estimated that the eastern coastline from Faro to “Scaletto,” modern-day Scaletta Superiore, about thirty kilometers (nineteen miles) to the south, produced as much wine as the area around Milazzo.
In contrast with our current epoch, the late nineteenth century was a boom period in viticulture for the northern coastline areas in the vicinities of Milazzo and Messina. French traders, responding to the phylloxera devastation of European vineyards in the 1870s, sought vini da taglio, dark, alcoholic, and tannic wines to add to and enrich their own wines or ones bought from other locations. They particularly prized the wine that they called Milazzo, after the port of origin. Another name traders gave this wine was Capo Rosso, meaning “red wine from the Cape of Milazzo.” It was sourced from palmentos in the towns of Milazzo, Santa Lucia, San Filippo del Mela, and Pace. Messina and surrounding areas produced Faro. By the end of the nineteenth century, this wine was less concentrated and alcoholic than Milazzo. Like Milazzo, Faro had low levels of residual sugar. Sometimes it was fortified with 3 percent spirit to stabilize it for travel. Renowned locally and particularly in the city of Messina were Faro wines from several villages near Cape Peloro, notably Faro Superiore and Ganzirri.11
Nocera was the most important variety for both Milazzo and Faro wines of the nineteenth century. Ripe Nocera grapes produce deep red, alcoholic, and tannic wines. The combination of water, sun, warmth, nutrient-rich soil, alberello training, and Nocera created ideal conditions for producing high volumes of concentrated red wine. The French bought Milazzo as soon as fermentation was over or almost over and shipped it to the ports of Bordeaux or Sète, where they finished the wine in their own cellars.
The trade with France stopped suddenly, however, in the late 1880s. Milazzo turned to other markets, such as South America, Switzerland, Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and central and northern Italy. But the overall market was never as vigorous or profitable again. By the end of the century, phylloxera had arrived in Sicily. The northeast coast was in the vanguard in finding a solution to the infestation. In 1893 Giuseppe Zirilli Lucifero, a member of an important winemaking family from Milazzo, started the first private nursery of American vines in Sicily and became an important provider of rootstocks. In 1897 Antonio Ruggeri, the director of the government nursery for the province of Messina, created 140 Ru, which would become the most used phylloxera-resistant rootstock in Sicily in the next century.
Though there was some replanting during the Fascist period of the 1920s and 1930s and some activity in bulk wine sales to Genoa from the port of Milazzo in the 1950s, the decline in viticultural and enological activity continued in northeast Sicily. Since the end of World War II, the construction trade has dominated its economic sector. Also during the twentieth century, Nero d'Avola became more prevalent than Nocera in vineyards in the vicinity of Milazzo, and Nerello Mascalese became more prevalent than Nocera near the city of Messina. As of 2009, Nerello Mascalese and Nero d'Avola together accounted for about 48 percent of the vines planted in the province of Messina. Alberello was the training system for 54 percent of the vines there. Messina ranks fourth-to-last in volume of wine production per province in Sicily, followed by Ragusa, Siracusa, and Enna.
Because these narrow coastal plains face the Tyrrhenian Sea on the north side of Sicily and the Ionian Sea on the eastern side, they are exposed to humid air. Moreover, they back up to mountain ranges where precipitation is high. From west to east, these are the Madonie, the Nebrodi, and the Peloritani. The impacts of the maestrale on the northern coast and the grecale and scirocco on the eastern coast make the coastal plains of the Val Demone some of the wettest locations on the island. Rain falls principally in winter. June, July, and August are dry and sunny. The rain's erosion of the mountain slopes has made the soils of the foothills and plains deep. The coastline area has two DOCs, Faro and Mamertino. There are a handful of producers making wines for each. The volumes of Faro DOC and Mamertino DOC are both minuscule.
FARO
The Faro DOC, created in 1976, wraps around Cape Peloro. At the cape is an imposing lighthouse, Torre Faro, which translates into English as “Tower Lighthouse.” There is sand along the coastline here and to the south, and the soils tend to be more acidic. Clay dominates much of the soil in the northern part of the Faro DOC. Below Messina the coastal plain is very narrow. Its climate is rainy and humid, because of the scirocco winds. They blow most often in the months of April, May, and September. The scirocco can be powerful where there are no hills to face off against it. Claudio Barbera has to tie down the furniture on the patio of his estate, which looks down over the Strait of Messina, to keep it from blowing away. Hills protect Bonavita's vineyards in Faro Superiore from the scirocco. It has little impact there. Moving from the shoreline, the land quickly rises into the Peloritani Mountains, which are Sicily's lone stand of metamorphic rock. The Faro DOC allows only a red wine, which calls for 45 to 60 percent Nerello Mascalese, 15 to 30 percent Nerello Cappuccio, 5 to 10 percent Nocera, and up to 15 percent Nero d'Avola, Gaglioppo, Sangiovese, or any blend of these three. The phylloxera infestation of the late nineteenth century sent Faro into a decline. It hit a low point in the mid-1980s, when Giacomo Currò was the only significant producer of Faro, with only two hectares (five acres) in production. The appellation was in danger of extinction until the early 1990s, when Salvatore Geraci of Palari began to produce wine.
Bonavita.In the epicenter of the nineteenth-century Faro area is Bonavita. This winery's 2006 Faro was its first commercial vintage. Bonavita is the work of the Scarfone family, Emanuela, Carmelo, and their sons Giovanni and Francesco. They are true winegrowers because they participate in all the work on the farm, from taking care of their six hectares (fifteen acres) of vines to making and commercializing the wine. Their vineyards are between the villages of Faro Superiore and Curcuraci. Bonavita is at 250 meters (820 feet), halfway between the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas, and protected from the scirocco by the Peloritani Mountains. Its 2008 Faro fused cherry with eucalyptus aromas. The wine had leather nuances in the nose, indicative of artisanal production. Production averages only four thousand bottles per year.
Enza La Fauci.Another producer of Faro is Enza La Fauci, whose Oblì Faro DOC blends ripe red berry fruits and fine-textured astringency. It is 60 percent Nerello Mascalese, with 15 percent each of Nerello Cappuccio and Nocera, and Nero d'Avola making up the remaining 10 percent. La Fauci also makes Terra di Vento, a more basic Nerello Mascalese–Nero d'Avola blend. It is less round in the mouth and lacks the fine astringent finish of the Oblì. These are handmade, low-production wines. La Fauci's three hectares (seven and a half acres) along the Tyrrhenian Sea face northeast.
Fondo dei Barbera.Barbera's estate officially bears his name. The branding on the only wine that he produces is Fondo dei Barbera, which translates to “Barbera Family Estate.” He is an engineer with a love of plants. In his kitchen he has a pneumatic hookup for various contraptions that he uses when he cooks and cleans. His home sits atop a ridge in Faro Superiore that overlooks the Strait of Messina. His is the only significant vineyard in a residential area. He watches the vines grow as he looks down from his patio. He does all his own grafting in the vineyard. Each of the three vineyards around his house bears the names of one of his daughters: Teresa, Valeria, and Claudia. He has planted three varieties, which he vinifies together, for his wine, a Faro DOC. Nerello Mascalese dominates the blend, varying from 40 to 60 percent each year. Its yield is inconsistent, and its quality and character change from year to year. Nocera accounts for 30 percent of the blend. Nero d'Avola makes up the balance. Barbera would like to increase the Nocera at the expense of the Nero d'Avola. He says that Nero d'Avola gives his wine color, Nocera its fruity smell, and Nerello Mascalese its body, structure, and acidity. When the millipedes come out, he knows that the maestrale will bring rain. When the grecale blows, he knows it's time to fly a kite in its steady, strong wind with nine-year-old Claudia at his side. His winery is the size of a closet in a modern American home. Of course, it is filled to the ceiling with stainless steel tanks. He made 1,243 bottles of the 2008 vintage, his first commercial bottling. It won an award at a wine competition in Asti. It was dark and meaty, earthy with a bit of leather in the nose. In the mouth the wine was soft, with a long astringent finish. Barbera made 1,642 bottles of the 2009. Though it is paler and has less body, I prefer its cleaner fruit and more acidic zip in the mouth. In the same league as an elite Burgundy producer, Barbera makes one bottle of wine per plant. We need more producers like him, to remind us how wine connects us to place and family.
Palari.The entry of Palari in the market not only helped rescue Faro from Oblìvion but also brought back its fame. In 1990 the famous gastronomic journalist Luigi Veronelli asked his friend Salvatore Geraci, an architect and gastronomist, to produce Faro commercially. Geraci's family owns six hectares (fifteen acres) of vineyard property south of Messina in Santo Stefano Briga, with which he helped to restore the viability of the Faro DOC. Veronelli put him in contact with the enologist Donato Lanati, who had just started a research laboratory, Enosis, in Piedmont. Lanati told Geraci that he would help only if the goal was to make great wine. Geraci took on the challenge and was soon sending Lanati samples that were of the same quality as the best Barolo and Barbaresco. Geraci gave most of the first vintages of his wine to friends. Veronelli reviewed his 1992 vintage, the first to be labeled, in the January 1995 edition of the prestigious Catalogo Veronelli dei Vini da Favola. This set the stage for the commercialization of the wine, which began that year. According to the then-cocurator of the Italian wine guide Gambero Rosso, Daniele Cernilli, Geraci was not serious about entering his wine in the guide until the 1996 vintage. Since then Palari has won numerous awards.
Behind the scenes, Geraci's brother Giampiero helps to manage the vineyard and winery. The site of the vineyard is spectacular. A windy dirt road leads up to a precipitous vineyard (with an average slope of seventy-five percent) that looks eastward over the Strait of Messina. The elevation is four hundred meters (1,312 feet). Alberello is trained on sandy soils held on the slope by stone terraces. The stones are jagged and schistose, unlike any others that I have seen in Sicily. The winery is the eighteenth-century Geraci villa. It makes three wines, Palari, Rosso del Soprano, and Santa.Nè. The estate takes its name from the contrada of origin. It is about 50 percent Nerello Mascalese, with the balance being a blend of Nerello Cappuccio, Nocera, Nero d'Avola, and obscure local grapes such as Acitana and Galatena. Rosso del Soprano has the same blend as Palari. Soprano is the name in dialect for Santo Stefano Briga, Palari's hamlet. Santa. Nè is a single-vineyard wine. The vines are a mix of varieties of unknown origin, called francisi in dialect, suggesting a French origin. The Rosso del Soprano and the Santa. Nè are Sicilia IGT wines. In the summer of 2010 I tasted the 1998, 2000, 2006, 2007, and 2008 Palari, the 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 Rosso del Soprano, and the 2005 Santa.Nè. The older vintages had modest depth of color, smelled of ripe and in some cases late-harvested fruit, had some smokiness from toasted barrique, and were very soft and round in the mouth. They made me think of the descriptions of the best late-nineteenth-century Faro. They were Burgundian in style rather than Bordeaux. The Santa.Nè, however, had a vegetal nose and was midweight in the mouth. It had the freshness, elegance, and delicacy of fine red Bordeaux.
MAMERTINO
The Mamertino DOC encompasses a wide area that includes the coastline and the foothills of the Peloritani and Nebrodi Mountains that look northward to the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Because it has greater protection from the grecale and the scirocco, there is less rainfall here than in the Faro DOC, on the other side of the Peloritani Mountains. Due to the presence of iron, the soils have a brown tint. Those west of Milazzo tend to be more clayey and calcareous. At Milazzo they are deep and fertile. As the vineyards back up to the Peloritani Mountains their soils can be slightly acidic.
Modern wine producers have reached back to the fame of a Roman wine made in this area called Mamertino. There are no accurate descriptions of it. A wine by this name was not seen again until the nineteenth century, when at least one Mamertino was bottled. The producer Zirilli Giuseppe and Son of Milazzo entered a Mamertino wine in the Dublin International Exhibition of 1865. In the 1960s the government-supported Cantina Sperimentale at Milazzo made tiny quantities of sweet amber wines bottled as Mamertino. It also planted vine varieties with the goal of developing a Mamertino blend. At the same time, there was a handful of producers in the vicinity of Milazzo making wines labeled Mamertino. In 1985 Ruggero Vasari, a wine producer at Santa Lucia del Mela just outside Milazzo, registered the name as a trademark and made a Mamertino only to discover that a producer in Emilia-Romagna had already done the same. Finally, after almost twenty years of wrestling with how to protect the name, he drew up an application for Mamertino to become a DOC. The Italian Ministry of Agriculture accepted Mamertino di Milazzo, or simply Mamertino, as a DOC in 2004. The production regulation prescribes four typologies: white, red, Nero d'Avola, and Grillo-Inzolia. The first three can have riserva status after twenty-four months of aging and meeting other technical requirements. This category, however, is rarely made. Grillo and Inzolia are the two most important varieties in the white Mamertino blend. For the red, the law specifies a minimum of 60 percent Nero d'Avola and 10 to 40 percent Nocera. Other recommended or allowed red varieties can make up the balance. Ironically, the DOC does not specify a sweet white typology, as would approximate a Roman-period Mamertino. Given that Nocera is the dominant historic variety of the Milazzo area, it is fitting that it have a central role in the red Mamertino DOC. Vasari saw Nero d'Avola as the variety that would drive the Mamertino DOC. From a flavor point of view, the selection of Nero d'Avola helps distinguish Mamertino Rosso from Faro. Faro's principal variety is Nerello Mascalese.
Cambria.At Vinitaly 2011 I tasted the 2009 Nocera varietal wine Mastronicola, made by Cambria from Furnari, also in the Milazzo area. The wine was a deep purple red with a ruby rim and had a soft, slightly sweet, overripe taste. Though it was not as dark, tart, or astringent as Milazzo of the nineteenth century was reputed to be, it was very reminiscent of what I have read about the taste of nineteenth-century Faro. It shared with the Vasari Nocera a jammy, juicy character. The 2010 Mastronicola that I tasted at Vinitaly 2012 was more astringent.
Gaglio. Gagliois a lot easier to say than the official name of this winery: La Flora di Gaglio Maria Teresa e Mondello Flora. Mother Marisa and daughter Flora, both architects by education, run this estate with five hectares (twelve acres) of vines that overlook the Tyrrhenian Sea, dotted with Stromboli and several other Aeolian islands. The location is in the township of Patti, known for its wine for centuries. Not too far away is Tindari, on a high promontory with a fourth century B.C. Greek amphitheater and a sanctuary where busloads of pilgrims arrive to pray to an icon of the Black Madonna. Mother and daughter oversee the growing and harvesting of the grapes. Though the estate has an old palmento that Flora can remember being used when she was a child, they bring the grapes to the Cambria Winery in nearby Furnari for vinification, which the consulting enologist Salvatore Martinico oversees. Grillo is now being planted all over Sicily. I tasted a Gaglio Grillo 2010, which had a mild fruity nose and a mouth with a pleasant sour-salt balance. Their leading wine is Leda, a 70 percent Nero d'Avola, 30 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2008 had a moderate depth of red-brown, with purple at the meniscus. Beyond its mild blackberry nose, the wine had bright sourness and evident astringency. The 2010 Esdra Mamertino, which is a 100 percent Nero d'Avola, raises the ante with its high astringency, but in June 2012, at the time of tasting, it was a baby too young for my glass. Speaking of babies, the daughter of Flora, Giulia, born in 2004, may continue this legacy of women.
Gatti.At Vinitaly 2012 I discovered the Gatti estate, a recent entrant in the Mamertino DOC. In 2005 the owner, Nicolas Gatti Russo, replanted family vineyards dating from 1825 from three to five hundred meters (984 to 1,640 feet) in the Cuprani contrada on the northwest-facing slopes of the Nebrodi Mountains. The estate's 2010 100 percent Nocera wine, Sice, had fresh sour cherry fruit and an astringent finish. It is a refreshing contrast to the ripe style of Nocera produced by Cambria.
Planeta.Planeta has entered the Mamertino DOC. It has a twenty-five-year lease to manage and use the fruit of nine hectares (twenty-two acres) of vineyards on Capo Milazzo, a promontory dangling out into the Tyrrhenian Sea. It replanted these vineyards in 2011. Alessio Planeta foresees a 60 percent Nero d'Avola, 40 percent Nocera blend. He believes that Nocera has potential and hopes that it will play a bigger role in the Mamertino DOC. He would have preferred planting the vineyards 100 percent to Nocera, but the DOC regulations do not allow this. He would even like to officially change the name of the Nocera variety to Mamertino.
Vasari.Ruggero Vasari is the only producer with a wide range of Mamertino DOC wines. He is the only producer to make Mamertino Bianco DOC (he blends Catarratto, Inzolia, and Grillo) and Mamertino Bianco Riserva. He also makes Mamertino Rosso, the most common Mamertino DOC typology, and Mamertino Rosso Riserva. One of his Mamertino Rosso wines and his Mamertino Rosso Riserva are 100 percent Nero d'Avola. His wines are well made right down the line, except for a Nocera IGT that was jammy, very sour, and too pungent. Vasari doesn't believe that Nocera by itself or as a significant part of a blend makes a wine with a profile that the modern wine market would appreciate. Planeta's presence in the Mamertino DOC may challenge this perspective.
CEFALÙ
There are two other outposts of fine wine farther west along the coastline, in the vicinity of Cefalù. The vineyards are on hillsides that back up to the Madonie Mountains. They face north toward the Tyrrhenian Sea. Soils are clay-based calcareous. Rainfall is less than in locations to the east but still above average for Sicily. The northern exposure combined with adequate rainfall and the cool, humid clay soils has the potential to produce fresh, fruity wines with acidity and structure. I asked Sicilian wine producers several times why wine production was so marginal in this area. Though they all believed it had potential, they suggested that the lack of a tradition of wine production was the major cause.
Abbazia Santa Anastasia.Southeast of Cefalù facing the Tyrrhenian at Castelbuono is Abbazia Santa Anastasia. Francesco Lena, a Palermo builder, bought the site in 1980 and poured money into the three hundred hectare (741 acre) farm. His son, Gianfranco, was the business manager, and his daughter, Stefania, the enologist. Riccardo Cotarella followed Giacomo Tachis as the consulting enologist. Leonello Anello, Tuscany's well-known biodynamic consultant, helped to make the estate one of Sicily's leaders in this philosophically based agricultural system. The 2011 Zurrica Inzolia-Chardonnay and 2011 Sinestesia Sauvignon Blanc lacked varietal aromas and were thick in the mouth. The 2010 Passomaggio, a Nero d'Avola–Merlot blend, was aromatic, big, and tactile. Both the 2008 Montenero, a Bordeaux blend, and the 2008 Litra, a 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, were similarly rich extracted wines, with the Litra showing more elegance. These are wines to age. Sens(i)nverso, a biodynamic wine, is produced as both a varietal Nero d'Avola and a varietal Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2007 and 2009 Cabernets were concentrated wines with fine astringency. The 2007 had some leather in the nose and was less tart. The clay soils and northerly exposure of Santa Anastasia's 420 to 450 meter (1,377 to 1,476 feet) elevations are well suited for red wines. At Vinitaly 2012 the red wines showed great character. The whites, in comparison, were heavy and clumsy. If the whites’ varieties were planted at higher elevations and on rocky soils, they would be more elegant. As of 2012, Gianfranco Cordero is the new consulting enologist.
Simsider.Just south of Cefalù is Simsider, owned by Gabriele and Giulia Rappa. The vineyards are at six hundred meters (1,969 feet) on calcareous clay soil. Under the Museum label, they produce five different varietal wines: Chardonnay, Merlot, Nero d'Avola, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sauvignon Blanc. Their Cantina di Suro brand comprises Ribot, a Nero d'Avola-Syrah blend, and Santa Barbara, a red Bordeaux blend. The wines are all well made and clean.
THE AEOLIAN ISLANDS
Malvasia delle Lipari is a sweet white wine that has had an excellent reputation for centuries. It is produced in the Aeolian Archipelago, about twenty-five miles northwest of Milazzo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. In 1883, Egidio Pollacci pronounced, in his respected text on the theory and practice of viticulture and enology, “The Malvasia variety produces excellent wine in several of our regions, but none are as exquisite as those of Stromboli and Sardinia, and above all as those of the Aeolian Islands, which have no equal in Italy.”12 The archipelago contains seven principal islands: Lipari, Salina, Vulcano, Filicudi, Panarea, Stromboli, and Alicudi. Volcanic action formed them, though today only the volcanoes on Stromboli and Vulcano are active. The Aeolian Archipelago is also called the Lipari Islands after its largest, most populous, and best-known island. Salina, smaller, less populous, and less well known, has been more famous than the other islands in the archipelago for the production of Malvasia delle Lipari, olive oil, and capers.
The name Salina derives from the saltern on the island's south side, a shallow inlet where salt was produced. The island is mountainous. Monte Fossa delle Felci is its highest peak, at 962 meters (3,156 feet). Monte dei Porri reaches 860 meters (2,822 feet). Both are extinct volcanoes. The town of Leni is on the south side of the island. Malfa is in the north. An inland valley, Valdichiesa, links the two. The most important area for vineyards and wine production is around and between Malfa and Leni.
Remains of obsidian implements that date back to 3000 B.C. have been found on Monte Fossa delle Felci. Obsidian is a black volcanic glass ideal for creating sharp-edged tools and weapons. Though the Lipari Islands have been civilized for thousands of years, the vine variety Malvasia may be a relative newcomer, perhaps taken from Greece by Venetians at the end of the 1500s. In the early 1800s English soldiers who were stationed at Messina to thwart a possible advance from Naples by Napoleon became avid consumers of Malvasia di Lipari. They spread the wine's fame to Britain and the rest of Europe. In the late nineteenth century Neapolitan merchants bought vino di Salina, a dark, tannic, and alcoholic red vino da taglio. This wine was also exported to England, South America, and northern Italy. From 1870 to 1890, steamship transport to Palermo routed away much of the sailing ship traffic that had formerly moved through Messina and the Aeolian Archipelago. Then, in 1890 an army of phylloxera devastated Salina's vineyards. Destitution arrived. At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, a mass emigration to America depopulated the island. After 1910, islanders left for Australia. Wine production devolved into a purely family affair rather than a commercial one. As Italy rose from the ashes of World War II, wealthy northern Italians discovered the islands as a summer holiday retreat. Carlo Hauner, a designer and artist from Brescia, visited Lipari during the 1960s. In the early 1970s he bought a summer home with vineyards on Salina. He purchased a total of twenty hectares (forty-nine acres) of vineyards, which eventually made him the largest producer on the island. A decade later he was selling his wines to foreign markets. He researched how the wine was traditionally made. He introduced drying on the vine and experimented with cooling techniques in his winery. The industry on the island has not developed much since that time. Only about six or seven producers are currently commercially active on a scale that is more than just local.
Salina's climate is warm, averaging 17.5°C (63.5°F), with little day-to-night temperature variation. Rainfall is low, less than on the Val Demone coastline or in the vicinity of Etna but more than in the rest of Sicily. Volcanic activity began at the site one million to nine hundred thousand years ago and ended thirteen thousand years ago, making Salina one of the oldest islands in the archipelago. Thousands of years of farmers working the soil and breaking it down has created topsoils whose nutrients are available to absorption by plant rootlets. The soil is ash gray, slightly acidic, and composed of sand and pumice. It is fast draining. The island, though, is rich in underground water. At Malfa and Leni the soil is very fertile. Malfa is the best area for growing Malvasia destined for passito wines. Valdichiesa is very sandy and, therefore, less fertile. The day-to-night temperature variation is greater in this upland valley due to its elevation of nearly four hundred meters (1,312 feet). Its location in the center of the island and its protection by mountains on either side enhance this temperature difference. Valdichiesa is the best place for growing grapes for dry red and white wine production.
There are some vineyards on other Aeolian Islands. Volcanic eruptions destroyed vineyards on Vulcano in the late 1880s. In 2000 Carlo Hauner Jr. planted vineyards there at four hundred meters (1,312 feet) where there is tuff and sand. Sulfur abounds in Vulcano's soil, and sulfurous fumes can be smelled in its air. On the plain of Castellaro on the island of Lipari, where Tenuta di Castellaro is, the soil is rich in sand, pumice, and obsidian.
The principal white varieties on the islands are Inzolia, Catarratto, and Malvasia di Lipari. The red ones are Corinto Nero, Nero d'Avola, and Sangiovese. Recent genetic research indicates that Corinto Nero and Sangiovese are the same variety. Wine law does not at present recognize this finding. The traditional method of training was low pergola. Current training systems such as Guyot and cordon-spur position vines lower to the ground and attach them to poles and wires. Vineyards can be found from sea level to four hundred meters (1,312 feet).
While the grape variety is Malvasia di Lipari, the DOC for the islands is named Malvasia delle Lipari. Delle is the plural of di. Lipari is plural in the DOC name because the appellation covers seven islands and not just the namesake one. Malvasia delle Lipari was decreed a DOC in 1974. By law, between 5 and 8 percent of Corinto Nero, which gives it a coppery tint, must be used in a blend that is otherwise Malvasia di Lipari. Malvasia di Lipari provides floral and citrus smells. Corinto Nero may be responsible for some of the cedary smells. Several producers on Salina told me that they do not think Corinto Nero contributes to the quality of the wine and would like to see the DOC regulations changed to make its addition optional rather than Oblìgatory. The law allows three typologies of Malvasia: naturale, sweet but not a product of dried grapes; passito, made with grapes dried in the sun; and liquoroso, made with grapes which have been slightly dried. The naturale is a modern cold-fermented white wine. The passito is the classic version. Few, if any, liquoroso Malvasia delle Lipari DOC wines are made.
The grapes are late harvested, at about the third week of September. To make naturale they are pressed, cold-settled, and cold-fermented, in the same way most white wines are produced. To make passito the bunches are left outside for about seven to fifteen days on cane matting, exposed to the sun to dry. They are turned over at least twice a day so that the drying is even and mold doesn't colonize the side of the bunch not exposed to the sun. At night the bunches are covered to protect against dew. Producers do not want botrytis. They discard bunches that have not dried properly. In some years the drying period is so difficult that producers can't make Malvasia. This happened to Francesco Fenech in 2009, when he had to discard his crop.
Once the drying for passito is complete, the bunches are put into a press so that the juice can be extracted and collected in a tank. The juice cold-settles for a day or so. Selected yeast is added. Fermentation occurs at 20°C (68°F) until it is blocked when the wine reaches 12 to 14 percent alcohol with the desired amount of residual sugar. The wine is racked off the lees and stays in tank for several more months, until the following June at least. Then it is bottled. In the liquoroso version, the addition of spirits blocks fermentation, resulting in a finished wine with high levels of both alcohol and residual sugar. There are four bottlers on Salina: Hauner, Caravaglio, Fenech, and Virgona. There are no regulations prohibiting off-island bottling.
It is useful to compare Malvasia delle Lipari to Pantelleria. The Aeolian Islands are more humid than Pantelleria. The harvest of Zibibbo on Pantelleria begins in early August, when the climate is sunny and dry. The harvest of Malvasia di Lipari begins in the middle of September, when it is more likely to be rainy. While Zibibbo has a thick skin that resists physical bruising and botrytis, Malvasia di Lipari has a thin one that is susceptible to both. On Pantelleria, Zibibbo bunches raisin under the sun on mats in drier conditions, more quickly, and with fewer mold problems. As a result, their juice is more concentrated. Since the 1980s the wine trade has shown greater interest in and excitement for Pantelleria than Malvasia delle Lipari. While there are 560 hectares (1,384 acres) planted for Pantelleria DOC wines, there are only forty-six (114 acres) planted for Malvasia delle Lipari DOC. The wines of the Aeolian Archipelago had their period of greatest success in the nineteenth century, whereas Pantelleria was most noted for high quality in the late twentieth century. Francesco Intoricia of Casano in Marsala once mentioned, “Salina is more old than young.” He could have added that Pantelleria is more young than old. On both islands, however, it is so much easier to make a living through tourism than viticulture and wine production that it is doubtful that either wine culture will expand much in the future.
Fenech.Francesco Fenech comes from a family that produced Malvasia on Salina in the 1800s. He sources grapes from some thirty-five tiny vineyards in Malfa. He produces a highly aromatic but structured Malvasia delle Lipari by cold-macerating the skins of the sun-dried grapes, blending the free-run press juice with the juice from a second hard pressing of the skins, and then combining the two juices for fermentation. From the free-run juice he gets the aroma. From the press juice he gets tannins, which provide the structure. His Malvasia delle Lipari is, along with Tasca d'Almerita's Capofaro, the most aromatic and lively wine on the island. He makes ten thousand half bottles per year. He also buys grapes from off-island to make still dry red wine and white wine, sold under the brand name Perciato.
Hauner.On the death of his father, Carlo Hauner, in 1996, Carlo Hauner Jr. took over responsibility for the family winery. Gianfranco Sabbatino has assisted him. Hauner makes about fifty thousand bottles annually, half of it Malvasia delle Lipari naturale and the other half passito. Of its twenty hectares (forty-nine acres) of vineyards, Hauner owns five on Vulcano, where it makes a red wine called Hierà. While Hauner exports the wine to various countries through different importers, Carlo Pellegrino, the Marsala company, distributes it in the Italian market. Hauner makes a Salina IGT white wine with Malvasia. It is dense, dry, and tangy, with some fig, caramel, apple, and banana smells. The Salina IGT Rosso is a Nero d'Avola–Nerello Mascalese blend that matures some time in barrique before bottling. It is a well-made dry red wine. The estate has another barrique-matured red wine, Rosso Antonello IGT Salina. The wine Carlo Hauner is dedicated to Carlo Jr.’s father. This is a concentrated dry white wine made from a blend of Inzolia, Catarratto, Grecanico, and Grillo. After some cold maceration, it matures in both stainless steel and oak barrel. This wine is thicker and denser than the Salina IGT Bianco. It has a slight toasty nose. Honey, dried figs, apricots, and a syrupy sweetness dominate the Malvasia delle Lipari passito. Hierà, the Hauner wine made from Vulcano grapes, mixes cedars, spices, and prunes in the nose. In the mouth it is ripe and thick. The grape varieties used are Nero d'Avola, Grenache, and Nocera. Hauner also produces a “riserva” Malvasia delle Lipari. I was unable, however, to find any mention of a “riserva” category in the DOC regulations.
Tasca d'Almerita (Capofaro).Tasca d'Almerita owns five hectares (twelve acres) of vineyards at the site of a lighthouse (faro) on the northeast side of Salina. It makes a passito Malvasia delle Lipari-style wine under the name Tenuta Capofaro. The wine is not a Malvasia delle Lipari passito DOC, though the production process is very similar. It is bottled as an IGT Sicilia. Capofaro does not include Corinto Nero with its Malvasia di Lipari. In the vineyard, leaves are left on the vines to shade the berries and to reduce canopy temperature. The resulting wine has more aromas and higher acidity. The grape bunches are dried indoors to preserve fruity aromas. The wine has a lower alcohol level (11 percent) than Malvasia delle Lipari DOC wines. It is pale amber-yellow, with a fruity apricot, crème caramel nose and a sweet but tart, light, and delicate mouth. Tasca d'Almerita also has a luxury boutique resort at this site. From it you can see the white clouds of steam and ash billowing from the volcano on the island of Stromboli at the northeast edge of the Aeolian Archipelago, the most northerly point of the Val Demone and Sicily itself.
Other recommended producers:
Barone di Villagrande
Caravaglio
Colosi
Giona
Lantieri
Salvatore D'Amico
Tenuta di Castellaro
Virgona