Sicily Wine

This is a fabulous bargain in very high-end Etna red. It's mainly Nerello Mascalese with a smattering of the softer Nerello Cappuccio from sites across the north slopes of the volcano. It’s wonderfully layered and complex,... Read More

Organic/Bio Russo’s Calderara Sottana is more red-fruited and open/fleshy than the darker, more intense, San Lorenzo. But there’s still plenty of intensity to the perfume and flavors and grip on the long, minerally,... Read More

Organic/Bio As Wine Advocate said last year, “Giuseppe Russo makes some of the best wines on Etna. Full stop.” And this is Doug’s favorite pretty much every year. From roughly 50 year-old vines at 500 meters,... Read More

Organic/Bio At the very top of San Lorenzo, at 750 meters elevation, almost too high to be “Etna Rosso,” Russo farms a 0.7HA plot of vines planted in the early 1940s. Originally they were trained on traditional albarello... Read More

Organic/Bio As Wine Advocate said last year, “Giuseppe Russo makes some of the best wines on Etna. Full stop.” This is his more powerful and sleek San Lorenzo bottling, at 330 cases, his biggest single Contrada wine.... Read More

Organic/Bio Only from Etna do you get this captivating combination of smoky volcanic rock and crunchy-ripe strawberry/sweet cherry fruit with mouthcoating tannins that give shape and elevate the flavors without drying you out... Read More

One of the best buys in Mt. Etna red we’ve seen in a while – and not just because it tastes so good. The ripe strawberry and tart cherry fruit shine brightly through Etna Nerello Mascalese’s signature smoky spice... Read More

Organic/Bio At just 1,800 feet elevation, the lowest of Passopisciaro’s Contrada vines grow on the last edges of Mount Etna lava. The vines push through the lava to limestone and develop more rich, round, textures than the... Read More

Organic/Bio Someday I'll go to Le Contrade dell'Etna and taste wines from every important contrade on the volcano. Until then, though, my position is clear and absolute: Guardiola is my favorite and, arguably, the best.... Read More

Organic/Bio What I’ve learned about Passopisciaro’s Etna Chardonnays is you must give yourself three tastes before you understand what’s going on. Chardonnay of these poor volcanic soils is so mineral and intense... Read More

Organic/Bio This is from a tiny, tiny, plot of vines Andrea Franchetti planted in the Passochianche contrada around 3,000 feet done in large oak. Maybe “Puligny Montrachet meets the Santa Cruz Mountains” suggests the... Read More

Organic/Bio Contrada Rampante is Passopisciaro's highest cru and, at 3,300 feet, at the very limit of where Nerello Mascalese can be grown. It's loaded with floral perfume and lifted by vital acidity, but the fruit - sweet/tart,... Read More

Organic/Bio Contrada Rampante is Passopisciaro's highest cru and, at 3,300 feet, at the very limit of where Nerello Mascalese can be grown. It's loaded with floral perfume and lifted by vital acidity, but the fruit - sweet/tart,... Read More

Organic/Bio With just 1HA of vines on the 2,800 foot elevation, lava-covered, Contrada Sciaranuova, Passopisciaro made only 165 cases or so of this in 2021. The name translates to new lava flow which covered the site in the 1600s... Read More

Organic/Bio With just 1HA of vines on the 2,800 foot elevation, lava-covered, Contrada Sciaranuova, this is always one of the more limited wines from Passopisciaro. The name translates to new lava flow which covered the site in... Read More

I never met Andrea Franchetti, who died in December 2021 at the age of 72. But this wine sums up everything I’ve read and heard from his partners at Passopisciaro. “Poetic” and “wildly visionary”... Read More

Organic/Bio While Andera Franchetti grew to love and master Etna's native red grape, Nerello Mascalese, he never found the charm or potential in its white varietals. So he planted Chardonnay which he hoped would thrive in... Read More

Organic/Bio Most Etna wineries make an “Etna Rosso” from younger vines or barrels not used in their single-contrada bottlings. Not here. Instead Passarosso is a blend from some of the oldest vines in Passopisciaro's... Read More

Lots of folks are going to initially reject a cloudy, frothy, tart wine that at first blush is built to appeal only to Pet-Nat and sour beer fans. But chill this down and sip with salmon tartare or a bite of something finished... Read More

Organic/Bio Lower ABV When Marc de Grazia began purchasing old vineyards on Mt Etna, he quickly discovered that old-school farmers always includes about 3-7% white grapes in the field. In 2005, he picked all the white grapes before... Read More

Organic/Bio Always one of the most exciting white wines made in all of Sicily. It's 100% Carricante, the white grape that has grown on Mt Etna for at least 1,000 years and probably longer. The 40-100 year-old vines grow in... Read More

Organic/Bio A new wine from Terre Nere, this celebrates the first harvest Marc de Grazia took from this Grand Cru vineyard in 2002 by pulling grapes from his first new vine planting there. Planted in 2006 and 2007, these vines... Read More

Organic/Bio Just as in the rest of Europe, when phylloxera came to Sicily in the early 20th Century it devastated most of the region's vineyards. But two small plots of Nerello Mascalese on Mount Etna's steep slopes survived,... Read More

Just as in the rest of Europe, when phylloxera devastated most of the volcano's vineyards when it finally arrived here in the mid-20th Century. But two small plots of Nerello Mascalese on Calderara Sottona's steep slopes... Read More

Marc de Grazia has designed San Lorenzo one of his three Grande Terroir Ellittico wines, so designated because of their very rare and pure volcanic sand soils from the Ellittico eruptions dating from 15,000 to 60,000 years ago.... Read More