Etna: wines from the volcano

On Etna the ground is sometimes younger than the vines standing in it, and that is the reason for this week. Six days on Etna, the volcano in eastern Sicily, Italy, built around the north slope between Randazzo and Solicchiata, where the contrade follow one another along a single road and each sits on its own lava flow. Six estates: four classic houses working in steel and oak, two that ferment in buried terracotta and open lava stone on wild yeasts, with as little added as they can manage. Three nights in Randazzo, one at Milo on the wet east side, one in Catania. Six to ten guests, one grape most of the week, Nerello Mascalese, and Carricante to keep it honest. Catania to Catania.

Day 1: Catania to Randazzo#

We meet at Catania Fontanarossa at 15:00; a driver collects anyone who lands earlier. The road climbs north through Linguaglossa to Randazzo, 75 kilometres and about 1 h 20, and the summit shows itself somewhere after the motorway, usually with a plume. Randazzo stands at 754 metres, a medieval town built in black lava stone with the volcano at the end of every street. We stay three nights in a small family-run hotel in the old town. At 19:30 I pour the week’s vocabulary over dinner: a Carricante from Milo, an Etna Rosso from steel and oak, a Nerello from buried terracotta, and a Nerello Cappuccio on its own, which almost nobody bottles. On the plates, pasta with Bronte pistachio and, in October, Etna porcini.

Day 2: Passopisciaro, Feudo di Mezzo and Graci#

Ten kilometres east, 15 minutes, to Passopisciaro at about 650 metres. We start on foot in Contrada Feudo di Mezzo: black sand, the loose lava gravel called ripiddu, alberello vines on chestnut stakes at up to 12,000 to the hectare, many of them ungrafted. At 10:30 we are at Graci, the 19th-century palmento Alberto Aiello Graci made his winery when he founded the estate in 2004. Wild yeasts, long macerations, large neutral oak, and six single-contrada wines from Arcurìa to Barbabecchi, ungrafted vines up to a century old at about 1,000 metres. Lunch in Linguaglossa: salsiccia al ceppo, the sausage chopped on a stump, with the Rosso. At 15:30, Passopisciaro, the estate Andrea Franchetti began in 2000 and his son Benjamin leads today. Five contrada wines named by letter, C for Chiappemacine at 550 metres up to R for Rampante at about 1,000: same grape, same vintage, one letter apart. Dinner is free in Randazzo; I book the tables.

Day 3: Calderara, Solicchiata and Frank Cornelissen#

Tenuta delle Terre Nere sits in Contrada Calderara, ten minutes from breakfast. Marco de Grazia founded it with his brother Iano in 2002 and was the first to print a contrada name on an Etna label. Steel, then French oak: Calderara Sottana, Guardiola, Santo Spirito and San Lorenzo in a row, and the Prephylloxera from ungrafted vines 100 to 140 years old. Lunch in Solicchiata. The afternoon belongs to Frank Cornelissen, the Belgian who arrived in 2001 and uses no wood: epoxy-lined tanks and terracotta buried to the neck in volcanic rock, about 24 hectares between 600 and 1,000 metres. His cellar is not a public one and I do not promise it. When the estate can receive a small group we go in; when it cannot, I pour Susucaru, a single-contrada MunJebel and, when I have one, Magma, at a table in the village. Evening in Castiglione di Sicilia, on its rock under the Lauria castle.

Day 4: Piano Provenzana and the palmento at Milo#

A mountain morning. From Linguaglossa the Mareneve road climbs to Piano Provenzana at 1,900 metres, past lava from the 2002 eruption, a flow before it becomes soil. If April snow closes the road, we walk the pine woods lower down. Lunch in Linguaglossa, then round the east side to Milo, about 40 minutes, the wettest village on the mountain at 750 metres and the home of Carricante. At 15:30 we are at Palmento Caselle, the 1840 lava-stone press house where Salvo Foti’s growers’ consortium I Vigneri ferments in open stone vats and chestnut casks, no cultured yeasts, the vines worked by hand and mule. The name honours a vine workers’ guild founded in Catania in 1435. Vinupetra, from half a hectare of century-old vines in Calderara; Vinudilice, a rosé pressed from red and white grapes at 1,300 metres above Bronte; Aurora, the Carricante named for a butterfly. We sleep at a family agriturismo among the vines and eat there.

Day 5: Milo, Viagrande and Benanti, then Catania#

A slow start among the Carricante of Milo, facing the sea. At 11:00 we are 40 minutes south in Viagrande, at the 19th-century house of Benanti below Monte Serra. Giuseppe Benanti revived the family vines in 1988; his twin sons Antonio and Salvino have run the estate since the end of 2012, about 35 hectares on four slopes. Steel for the whites, oak for the reds, Riservas held 60 months. Pietra Marina, Etna Bianco Superiore from old Milo Carricante at about 950 metres, is the white the mountain measures itself against: lemon, dried herbs, smoke, a saline line that keeps going. Then the Rovittello and Serra della Contessa Riservas, and the Nerello Cappuccio alone. Lunch in Viagrande. By 16:00 we are in Catania, 30 minutes downhill; the afternoon is free for Via Etnea and Piazza del Duomo. Farewell dinner at 20:00: pasta alla Norma, grilled swordfish, and my last exercise, two Nerellos blind, one from terracotta and one from oak, no wrong answers.

Day 6: Catania#

Breakfast, then transfers to Fontanarossa, 15 to 20 minutes from the centre, timed to each flight. If yours is late, I walk with anyone who wants to La Pescheria, the fish market below Piazza del Duomo, loud from early morning, and past the Benedictine monastery of San Nicolò l’Arena, one of the largest in Europe. Catania is also where the Maestranza dei Vigneri, the guild I Vigneri is named after, was founded in 1435, so the week ends where the mountain’s wine trade began. Bottles travel wrapped in a jumper in checked luggage; where an estate offers shipping, I help arrange it. Lunch is on your own.

Who this tour is for#

For anyone who drinks Burgundy or Nebbiolo and has been told Etna is the next thing; six days is enough to decide for yourself. For people who like a pale red with grip and a white that tastes of salt. For eaters: Sicilian tables lean on vegetables, fish and sheep’s cheese, so caponata, Norma and ricotta carry a vegetarian through the week without effort. It is not a beach holiday; we see the sea from 700 metres. If the Nebbiolo comparison pulls you north, the Langhe tour and my visit to Roagna in Barbaresco are the place to test it, and the Italy guide has the rest of the country. Any of this can run as a private tour for two to twelve, with the coast added if you want it.

Practical notes#

Flights: Vienna to Catania non-stop is about 2 h; Prague has non-stops in some seasons, otherwise one change. EU and Schengen, euro, no visa. Weather: late April at 700 metres is 15 to 20 °C by day and cold at night, with the slopes green and the summit still white; late October is similar, with the Nerello usually coming in and rain possible. Piano Provenzana at 1,900 metres can still hold snow in late April, so bring a warm layer and a windproof. Pack closed shoes with a grip: the vineyard walks are 30 to 45 minutes on loose lava gravel and stone terraces, and the palmenti have steep steps. Randazzo’s old town restricts traffic and Italy’s drink-drive limit is 0.5 grams per litre, so we travel by minibus with a driver. Cards work in towns, cash helps in the villages; sockets are type L and F. The FAQ covers single rooms and dietary needs; my note on visiting a winemaker explains why we arrive on time at a palmento.