Salvo Foti, the owner of a small vineyard producing handmade wines called I Vigneri di Salvo Foti & Figli in the village of Milo, remembers his grandfather telling him about two decades ago that he would go bankrupt selling his Etna wines in bottle. The thought of exporting his wines from vineyards on the slope of the famous volcano in Sicily to key wine markets around the world was unimaginable.
“You have a good business here selling your wines in bulk to local people,” his grandfather said, emphasizing that it’s what they had done for decades. “Why stop now?”
Foti said that local families would purchase enough wine to fill a 52-liter glass demijohn once a week, or trade for vegetables or other foodstuffs for the equivalent value. It was a simple system, contributing to a simple life in his village.
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“It’s crazy to think about that,” Foti said shaking his head and smiling at the thought as we checked out his humble winery after walking through some of his vineyards last July. He works with his two sons, Simone and Andrea.
Today, Foti exports his wines all over the world to key markets including the United States and Canada, and many parts of Asia, such as Japan. And the same is true for the dozens of his neighbors who own vineyards and wineries around Etna. Some consider his wines as natural wines because of their low sulfur levels and hands-off winemaking, but Foti and his two sons are not bothered. “We make the wines that we like,” he said with his sons smiling in the background of the outdoor tasting area.
Foti and other winemakers in the region are why Etna continues to be one of the most talked about wine regions in Italy. And I continue be impressed with the current quality of its wines and the positive evolution in viticulture and winemaking. Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli and I enjoyed our tasting of about 300 reds, whites, rosés and sparkling wines just outside the town of Castiglione di Sicilia, which gave us a broad idea of the current state of winemaking for the region.
This year in particular showed us how the Etna region, which comprises about 1,100 hectares of vineyards and produces about six million bottles per year, is taking quality to a new level in the bottle. One example was the ripe yet fresh and polished 2022 reds coming onto the market, and the other is the consistent quality and complexity of whites, most of which are made from the carricante grape.
“For me, 2022 is a really great year for reds,” said Marco de Grazia, the owner of Tenuta delle Terre Nere, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary vintage with 2022. “You have to need to go back to 2016 or 2011 for a year like that to find this quality. It is incredible.”
He, like other winemakers, admits that 2022 was a very hot and dry year, but he said the wines they made were not overly alcoholic and remained fresh and focused. “I have worked all over Italy and this region seems to be less affected by the heat and dryness; it’s really crazy,” he said. “It’s clear that old vines really can handle the hot and dry weather. This year [2024] it is really true. Young wines are suffering but old vines are just fine.
“We are better every year in Etna,” de Grazia add. “We are more precise in our vineyards and winery, and you see the difference more.”
Inside the cellar of Pietradolce, showing amphora and large wood casks to age wines.
Most Etna winemakers seem to prefer vintages slightly less hot than 2022 and always talk about 2021 and 2019 for reds as their model modern vintages. The many wines from those two vintages that we tasted or drank during our trip in July were of very high quality and attractive, but some seemed slightly austere, particularly if they used a lot of new wood with their aging. The 2020s are more open and ready to drink with slightly riper fruit and softer tannins.
In fact, Aldo and I had many of conversations about Etna reds during our trip and we surmised that the drinking window for them may be slightly shorter than other top Italian reds. We believe that most Etna reds are excellent to drink a year or two after their release and then for another five or six years. In some ways they are very modern reds for today, given the growing trend among consumers, especially young drinkers, to be less interested in aging wines.
It is also obvious that more Etna winemakers are making more delicate wines. Their reds, which are mostly made of nerello mascalese, are lighter in color and their palates are fresher and purer, giving them the texture of refined pinot noirs or cru Beaujolais, yet they maintain the energy and unique underlying flavors of basalt, pomace and plum so familiar to Etna reds.
“Our reds are made to be drunk young, but they can age,” said Frank Cornellisen, the Belgian vineyardist and winemaker who has a strong following in both the traditional and natural wine worlds for his wholesome approach to winemaking. One of his methodologies I find particularly interesting is his use of only fiberglass vats for fermenting, macerating and aging of wines. This maintains the freshness and purity of his offerings, he said.
“The quality of tannins is so much better now. We know so much more about extraction and it’s much more refined,” he said, adding that although he likes to drink older wines, “many wines are so much better to drink earlier.”
This is also evident in his white wines, which we found at a new level of quality. Carricante can make various styles of whites, from fresh and mineral bottles to dense and structured ones. And the best can equal the complexity and depth of the top reds of the region.
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Take, for example, the Girolamo Russo Etna Bianco San Lorenzo 2023. I have walked the vineyard of San Lorenzo a number of times with owner Giuseppe Russo, a former classical pianist, and the old vines flourish in the volcanic soils of this unique place. “We make structured and complex whites from San Lorenzo, and it’s always one of my best wines,” Russo said during a dinner with about 20 other wine producers I organized in the town of Linguaglossa at the famous steak restaurant Dai Pennisi.
It’s hard to think when you are in a room full of Etna wine producers that the region is so young compared with most appellations in Italy, and Europe for that matter. Most of the winemakers have been bottling wines for only about a decade or two. The hundreds of thousands of old vines, some more than 100 years old, make you forget that fine wine is something new here in Etna. It’s probably why Foti and other winemakers in the region think about their predecessors and how their own personal world of wine has changed so much over the years. Most are making their best wines ever.
– James Suckling, Editor/Chairman
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