Sicilia en Primeur 2023 Part One: L’Etna

By Michael Godel

L’Etna has caused its share of destruction, yet the volcano has also created beauty and in so many ways. This past May the opportunity arose to ascend and stand near the tip of the volcano’s 3,357m of elevation. After Kilimanjaro and Bromo, walking the ice and screes of this third volcano has now been crossed off of the bucket list. To see the awe, walk across its basalt sand, breathe in its gassy air, trace the paths of wrath caused by its powerful magma flows, including that of 2002, its most recent from 2,900 metres above sea level – it kind of puts life and all the incredible Etna wines into perspective.

L’Etna at 3,357m

The Etna wine story is nothing short of incredible because its modern day rise to major wine prominence is less than three decades old. Just 25 years ago there were a mere 400 hectares and today more than 1,300 planted on the muntagna. Yet at the end of the 19th century records tell us there were more than 50,000 hectares of vines. The market for wines made on these basalt slopes collapsed over the next 150-plus years as there was neither profit nor foresight in the promise of grape growing. The end of Italy’s mezzadrira system of land ownership and farming spread from north to south and by the 1970s and 1980s there became a renewed interest in Mount Etna. Today there are vineyards located on ancient lava flows and also those of eruptions having occurred in the last 100 years. There are estates risen from the ruins of the historical palmento and natural wonderlands like Parco Naturale dell’Etna and Parco Statella.

“Etna is and island within an island,” explains Valeria Agosta Constanzo, “because of its particular micro climate.” While most of Italy suffered beneath an unprecedented heat wave with no rain in 2017, Etna’s weather was anything but hot. Costanzo’s position in Contrada Santo Spirito is unique and the soils are of the finest volcanic sands from the 1879 eruption. An island within an island, within an island. The same might be said for Firriato’s pre-phylloxera vines in fine basalt at Cavanera Etnea but also those of Tenuta delle Tere Nere’s La Vigna di Don Peppino; the gnarly vines growing on solid rock in Feudo di Mezzo, Giuseppe Russo’s San Lorenzo, the grand cru amphitheatre that is Pietradolce’s Barbagalli and Planeta’s 1614 eruption soils at Sciaranuova; Cottanerà’s new cru vineyard called “Scalette” and the incredulity of growing up to and beyond 1000m of elevation at Guardiola.

The 2010 introduction of an MGA (menzione geografiche aggiuntive) system for reds followed in the footsteps of Barolo and Barbaresco in Piemonte. Then in 2011 the whites followed with Alberto Graci’s Arcurìa acting as the first to carry the recognition. This haute positioning was a far cry from the pistemutta wines that used to be made for the local market, light, of less maceration, lower structure and made for quick selling. Wines made by the contadino using old-school winemaking techniques. It’s revival is in the hands of Frank Cornelissen. But on L’Etna the new wine scene is more about electric energy and life. “Etna is a place of paradox,” tells Graci. “Part Africa and part Europe, with cold climate flowers and cacti.”

“Sustainability is not about the vines and leaves,” Graci continues, “it’s about the forests.” The Alcantara Valley is a place of sustainability because it is home to so much biodiversity. Not a cultivated one but a wild one. Wild herbs like fennel, chamomile, calendula, allium and oxeye daisy. Flowers, dominated by the ginestra but especially fruit trees like apricot, chestnut and apple. This is all related to and essential for what diversity is created in the vineyard. In fact on Etna North there is almost too much wild competition., for water and nutrients, yet nothing has really been removed or destroyed. The need for biodynamics has never been great because this is not a territory that needs to be restored. Life has always flourished and the use of chemicals was much lower as compared to most other wine growing regions of Italy.

*Godello with the AIS Sommeliers in Taormina*

The task of mapping Etna’s communes, villages, contrade and vineyards has been a complicated and formidable one but a Taiwanese journalist named Xiaowen Huang spent several years assembling the information and the substance for this great cartographic endeavour. The first edition of the first comprehensive map of the Etna Contrada was established in 2019 and recently published in 2022. Huang’s efforts have not been recognized by the entirety of the Etna cognoscenti but those who know are aware of its significance. The exercise was made even more difficult because geographical lines are a contentious matter and not all of L’Etna’s estate owners agree along contrada lines, nor to a producer do they harbour the same opinion on where elevation lines should be revised as it pertains to DOC status. Traditionally these were drawn based on existing roads and natural barriers such as rivers and streams. It would be foolish to dismiss each and every claim and also hard to ignore the liberties taken by some producers whose vineyard holdings straddle recognized demarcations and so there are some DOC wines that take their home field advantage. Still there are others labeled as Terre Siciliane IGT when their claims are likely as valid as some DOC wines. The stakes are high and challenging for such a young region. As it stands, these are the facts, rules and numbers.

Established as a DOC in 1968
1,184 ha
33,750 hl / 375,000 cases of production
133 contrade

Disciplinare: Minimum and maximum elevation: 400-1000m
Bianco: Minimum 60 percent carricante; maximum 40 percent catarratto; maximum 15 percent other allowable non aromatic white grapes
Superiore: Minimum 80 percent carricante plus other allowable non aromatic white grapes and can be produced only in the commune of Milo
Rosso: Minimum 80 percent nerello mascalese, maximum 20 percent nerello cappuccio; maximum 10 percent other allowable non aromatic white grapes
Rosato: Minimum 80 percent nerello mascalese, maximum 20 percent nerello cappuccio; maximum 10 percent other allowable non aromatic white grapes
Communes
South Slope: Biancavilla, Santa Maria di Licodia, Ragalna, Bel Passo, Nicolosi, Mascalucia, Pedara, Trecastagni, Acireale, Aci Sant’Antonio and Viagrande
East Slope: Zafferana Etnea, Milo, Giarre, Mascali, Sant’Alfio and Santa Venerina North Slope: Linguaglossa, Castiglione di Sicilia, Randazzo, Bronte and Piedimonte Etneo

List of contrade: Acquafredda, Airone, Alboretto–Chiuse del Signore, Algerazzi, Allegracore, Arcuria, Arena, Arrigo, Baldazza, Barbabecchi, Blandano, Bocca d’Orzo, Bragaseggi, Calderara, Calderara Sottana, Campo Rè, Cancelliere–Spuligni, Cannarozzo, Canne, Caristia, Carpene, Carranco, Caselle, Cavaliere, Cavotta (Treccastagni), Cavotta (Zafferana), Chiusa Politi, Ciarambella, Città Vecchia, Civita, Collabbasso, Cottanera, Croce Monaci, Crocittà, Dafara Galluzzo, Diciasettesalme, Dragala Gualtieri, Eremo di S. Emilia, Feudo, Feudo di Mezzo, Fleri, Fornazzo, Fossa Gelata, Fossa San Marco, Friera, Giunta, Grasà, Grotta Comune, Grotta della Paglia, Guardiola, Imbischi, Imboscamento, Iriti, Lavina, Maiorca, Malpasso, Mantra Murata, Marchesa, Martinella, Mille Cocchita, Monaci, Monte Gorna, Monte Ilice, Monte Rosso, Monte S. Nicolò, Monte Serra, Montedolce, Montelaguardia, Moscamento, Muganazzi, Muri Antichi, Palmellata, Panella–Petto Dragone, Passo Chianche, Passo Pomo, Paternostro, Petrulli, Pettinociarelle, Piano dei Daini, Piano dell’Acqua, Piano Filici, Pianodario, Pianogrande, Picciolo, Pietra Marina, Pietralunga, Pietrarizzo, Pignatone, Pignatuni, Pino, Piricoco, Pisanello, Pisano, Pomiciaro, Pontale Palino, Praino, Primoti, Rampante, Rapilli, Rinazzo, Rocca d’Api, Ronzini, Salice, San Giovannello, San Lorenzo, San Teodoro, Santo Spirito, Sarro, Scacchieri, Schigliatore, Sciambro, Sciara Nuova, Sciarelle, Scimonetta, Spadatrappo, Statella, Stella, Taccione, Torreguarino, Torretta, Tre Monti, Trimarchisa, Vaccarile, Valle Galfina, Valle San Giacomo, Vena, Verzella, Vignagrande, Villagrande, Viscalori, Volpare, Zottorinotto, Zucconerò.

The 2023 edition of Sicilia en Primeur was held in the second week of May, culminating with tastings, masterclasses and dinners in the extraordinary seaside hilltop village of Taormina. The annual event is made possible by Sicilia DOC, Assovini Sicilia and AB Comunicazione. I spent the better part of five days visiting producers aboard L’Etna, followed by tasting through many more of the mountain’s wines by way of the Assovini and AIS Sommelier assisted table-side service. Visits on this particular trip were made to Alta Mora, Calcagno, Cottanerà, Firriato, Girolamo Russo, Graci, I Custodi delle Vigne dell’Etna, Quantico, Palmento Costanzo, Pietradolce, Tenuta delle Terre Nere and Vini Scirto. These are my notes on the 150 Etna wines tasted and it is the cumulative assessment that offers a Godello’s eye view of the current state of Etna wines.