Category: Nerello Mascalese

Entry level Rosso from Russo who is definitely on the list of must try when so close to the source. There’s a welcoming restaurant on the edge of Passopisciaro called Borgo Spirito Santo which was mercifully close to the village. Luckily only a stiff twenty minute walk uphill which meant a leisurely totter down in the Etna moonlight with a bit of help from the iPhone torch. As usual in Sicily, there was great cooking that doesn’t muck about too much with very local produce. Being locavore isn’t some fad, it’s still just an economical way of life on the island. The wine list was very local too, most bottles don’t seem to have travelled far, this one 1.70kms according to google maps. It looked very at home, bright, fresh and clean. After a by no means extensive sampling, the standard of wine making seems high around Etna these days. Careful but not overblown to hide what makes Etna so interesting. This felt just medium weight, sort of sensible Pinot extraction level. Once more there’s those red fruit cherry like flavours, spice that’s hard to pin down and the sweet earth mixed with white ash thing, as best as I can manage. Drinking and wondering a lot, the thought occurs that much of the pleasure in wine comes from textures as much as flavour. And it’s the pumice and fine mouthwatering acid feel of the Nerellos from Etna that sets them apart. Keen to try more.

14% alcohol. Can’t remember the original closure. €25 ish on the list. Italian wine lists are great value.

93 points.

Terre Nere are reckoned to be a founder member of the Etna Rosso brigade. The owner seems to have spent most of a working life consulting and exporting Italian wine to the world. He then chose Etna for his own vineyard or as their website puts it, perhaps Etna chose him, such is the magnetism of the place. The website also suggests the Etna Rosso is “fresh, fragrant, beautifully slender with a fine grip.” That sums it up really. The site goes on to add that with ageing, “it is a wine for gentlemen. It is an aristocratically liberal wine.” Well, that may rule out a bolshy blogger. Luckily it didn’t stop a good wine shop in Acireale selling me a bottle. In the glass, it is indeed a classy mouthful. All the rocky red fruit of Etna and that nexus of pumice like tannin and a fine tingle of acidity. Medium weight and just so for its level below what must be some astoundingly good crus from their various contrada holdings. Think there may be an indulgence if the holiday budget holds up. May have to buy a cravat.

14% alcohol. Diam. €25.

93 very cultured points.

The custodians of the vines of Etna to translate the full name of this producer who has obviously invested a lot of everything into their place under the north slope of the volcano. One of five producers supervised by the Etna legend, Salvo Foti. A visit is a memorable thing both in visuals and flavour, I’ll try and post something more about the experience. This stood out from the reds tasted, so I bought a bottle for dinner. Though I must say it was the Ante Etna Bianchi that in hindsight were the most startling. Anyway, at the table with a plate of incredibly good fresh ricotta ravioli in pistachio pesto this was as rich and seamless as it tasted closer to the mountain. The usual Etna cherry and dark brown spices with a backing track of roasting nuts and the deep boom of the sweet damp organic soil whence it comes, fanciful maybe but….in short, deep red fruit cut with fine ashy tannin and ripe acidity. Etna Rosso’s fine chiselled fruit and its austere rocky texture perhaps aren’t the most alluring and easy to appreciate but once you get the taste, only more will do. The care and resources invested in these vines is more than apparent in the glass.

14% alcohol. Cork and a bit of a squelchy one. €32 at the winery.

95 points.