I am in the process of writing a series on the Mt Etna pioneers. I begun with the late Giuseppe Benanti of Benanti Viticoltori and continue herein with Salvo Foti of I Vigneri Salvo Foti & Figli.
In their seminal work on Sicilian wine (The World of Sicilian Wine), Nesto and di Savino describe the subject of this post thusly: "Salvo Foti stands out, by himself, as Sicily's greatest homegrown consulting enologist ..." who "... more than any other person ... has fostered an awareness of (Etna's) unique wine culture."
Giuseppe Benanti had the vision, will, business acumen, and resources to produce a quality Etna wine; but he lacked the technical expertise to bring his vision to fruition. After meeting Salvo Foti, he realized that he had found the missing link in the chain. So he hired him. Salvo brought generalized enological knowledge and local expertise re the varieties and environment.
Being the astute businessman and visionary that he was, Giuseppe recognized that Salvo's effort could only be enhanced if it was seasoned with practices and knowledge from beyond Sicily's shores so he went out and contracted the services of "foreign" winemakers and ecologists. Salvo thus was the tip of the spear that pierced the veil of Etna-wine-darkness and, in so doing, ignited the Renaissance in its winemaking.
According to Benjamin North Spencer (The New Wines of Mount Etna):
The first experiments amounted to 125 individual trials under monitored and controlled situations. They focused on different types of vineyard work, unique harvest times, wild and cultivated yeasts, acid conversion, variant temperatures, and the effects of fermentation on an array of storage containers. When the wines had settled, the team sat down to taste the results ... From an analytical standpoint, the best wines were those in which every effort was made to protect the integrity of the grapes, the purity of the must, and the resulting wine, from external heat or oxygenation. When the wines were analyzed, they also hit the Etna DOC targets with near pinpoint accuracy.
Salvo himself described his efforts as "historical and technical-scientific research in collaboration with Professor Rocco Di Stefano, Director of the Experimental Institute of Oenology in Asti." After two experimental harvests, the team designated the 1990 vintages of Pietra Marina Etna Bianco and Rovitello Etna Rosso for bottling.
This period, and its learnings, provided a foundation upon which Salvo has continued to build and has leveraged across a wide array of arenas and disciplines. And which has led me to coin the moniker Salvo the Magnificent.
Oenological Consultant/Guide
According to Nesto and di Savino, Foti's grandparents owned vineyards on the slopes of Etna. Salvo gained a technical degree in enology in 1981 and began consulting work with a number of producers in Sicily (Agrigento, Ragusa, Trapani) shortly thereafter. He continued his studies and eventually received a specialized degree in enology from the University of Catania.
Benanti
When Giuseppe Benanti made the commitment to the production of high-quality wine on Etna, he turned to the young Foti to work with him on the needed experiments. "Foti brought with him a love of the mountain and respect for the Etna culture of family production:" Nesto and di Savino.
In discussing the time before the Benanti initiative, Foti, in a Gambero Rosso interview, describes the Renaissance in Etna winemaking as beginning in the early 1990s. Before this, there was "little interest in Sicily's native grape varieties and typical agriculture in general." Etna winemaking was not viewed favorably and the wine that was made was primarily sold in bulk at the "cellar door." Only Villagrande and Murgo bottled consistently, with most producers selling-on their grapes.
Foti was Benanti's enologist until they parted ways in 2012. According to Salvino Benanti (speaking at a Wilson Daniels forum):
Benanti made richer, more concentrated wines in the beginning ... my father ... and Salvo worked together to produce a style that was market-relevant. When Antonio and Salvino came on board, they had a different vision as to what the estate's wines should present ... they promoted Salvo's deputy to the position of lead enologist to assist in the realization of that vision ... more purity of fruit, less concentration, and more of the underlying grape.
Salvino says that he tastes Salvo's wines today and sees them as being consistent with the style that was employed during his time at Benanti.
Gulfi
Vito Catania returned to his family estate near the small hilltop village of Chiaramonte Gulfi (Ragusa) after his father's death in the late 1990s. He brought with him vision of crafting "elegant, terroir-expressive wines" from native grapes grown on the best vineyard sites (jackieblisson.com). As Benanti had done earlier in the decade, Catania enlisted the assistance of Foti to assist in the realization of the vision. And this time Foti did not have an army of experts along for the ride; he knew the drill. Vito and Salvo conducted detailed soil and climate analyses across the region with Catania buying over 100 additional ha of vineyards as a result.
The estate is currently run by Matteo, Vito's son, who oversees vineyards in three locations:
- Chiaramente Gulfi
- Pachino Val di Noto
- Mt Etna.
All of these areas experience significant day-night temperature differentials (with resultant acidity retention), are dry-farmed, are planted to densities in excess of 8000 vines/ha, and are trained in the alberello system. The vineyards have all worked their way through organic certification and are now farmed biodynamically. Salvo continues to guide the organization's efforts.
I Custodi delle Vigne dell'Etna
I Custodi produces 70,000 bottles from mostly estate-grown fruit sourced from the company's 18 ha of certified-organic vineyards.
With a name that translates to "the guardians," native Sicilians Mario and Manuela Paoluzi at I Custodi consider themselves guardians of Etna's vineyards. Their four plots each sit at different elevations around Mt. Etna, providing a diversity of expressions of their native grapes. During their first visit to the Moganazzi vineyard, Mario and Manuela were inspired by a natural amphitheater framed by walls of black lava blocks, with a traditional wine pressing house in the center. They used the healthy, half-century-old vines found there to make their first red wine, called Aetnus. They also found an extraordinarily high concentration of ungrafted vines in their Vigna Saeculare vineyard, with some of them more than two centuries old. (I Custodi)
Mario and Manuela are working with Salvo to "revalorize these unique terroirs."
Others
Outside of the foregoing, most of Salvo's consulting clients have been small estates. He has guided new Etna winemakers, such as Ciro Biondi and Alice Bonaccorsi, and has served as consultant to Edomé, Romeo del Castello, and Il Cantante, among others.
Viticulturist/Conservationist/Thought Leader
Foti's core mission, as described by Nesto and di Savino, is:
- Protection of the land
- Preservation of alberello viticulture
- Cultivation of indigenous vine varieties
- Emphasizing the humanity of the grower
- Conservation of Sicilian culture.
- The use of the alberello training system
- Dense vine spacing
- Avoidance of systemic sprays and synthetic soil additives
- Chestnut poles for vine support.
In his writings (Foti has written a couple of books and a number of pamphlets on wine-related topics), Foti draws a sharp contrast between "producing Etna wines" and "making wine on Etna." Producing an Etna wine results in a product that "captures the essence of the land, the environment, and the people;" requires a winemaker who is "committed to improving and preserving the land where she or he operates," and a vineyard that is ...
in harmony with the terroir, is naturally integrated with the Etna volcano and is expressed in vertical: lives and grows upwards (leaves and shoots to the sky, in lavic stone terraces) and down in the depth (roots), in opposite directions but complementary between them (Salvo Foti, Applied Viticulture, Book 4, The Etnean Palmento: the traditional vinification).
For most of it lengthy vinous history, the Mt Etna region has utilized the alberello training system as the foundation of its viticultural regime. In Foti's view, alberello is perfect for grape maturity: (i) the leaves cover the grapes, affording protection from the sun's direct rays and (ii) it affords the capability of working around the vine. He is not a big fan of non-alberello training systems (Foti, The Verticality of Etna):
In the Etna, the vineyard cultivated in the horizontal way (destruction of the terraces to make flat the land, cultivation of the vineyards in the espalier system) is a forcing system for the vine, intended only for the mechanization and for the quantity.
This system reigned supreme until growers turned to the Guyot and speranato cordone (cordon spur) systems in the early and middle portions of the 20th century. As explained to me by Salvo, if you went back 20 years, most new plantings were Guyot, as growers pursued the perceived benefits of mechanization and increased yields. As a result, he said, we (the Etna growers) have lost our patrimonial history. But now things are looking up, he continued, as small producers are going back to alberello for new plantings.
Viticulture on the mountain is a mix of the traditional and these "newer" training systems and associated practices. There is no fiercer proponent and advocate of the traditional approach than Salvo. Salvo emphasized that his focus was on respect for the people and the environment. In the Mt Etna region they have been doing the same thing for over 200 years. The viticulture and the people have evolved together and he sees no reason to change that dynamic. He feels strongly that he has a responsibility to the people and the native varieties of the region to ensure their continuity.
And that continuity extends to his farming and management of the land. His grandfather and father worked Carricante. He is farming the way they did. They passed the practices and principles on to him and he is passing it on to his son Simone. And hopefully Simone will pass it on to his son. Continuity.
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| Foti with his son Simone |
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| Simone, Salvo, Lidia Rizzo, and Brandon Tokash |
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| Salvo Foti and author (Photo credit Lidia Rizzo) |
Grape Producer
A high level view of Foti's grape sources are shown on the map below.
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| I Vigneri vineyards around Mt. Etna (Source: Salvo Foti) |
Vigna Caselle
This vineyard, as explained by Salvo, lies between the mountain and the sea and the warm air from the latter meets with the cold air from the former over Milo with the result being significant rainfall (average 1500mm/year) over the entire growing area. In addition to the rain, growers have to contend with year-round winds which can attain speeds of as much as 50 miles/hour.
There are beneficial aspects to the winds however. Moisture dries out rapidly, keeping vine diseases at bay. As a result, the vineyard makes it through the growing season with only sulfur and copper sprays. In addition, the sea and wind combine to imbue the Carricante grown on this side of the mountain with a saltiness that is not evident in Carricantes grown on the north face.
The soil is sandy and of volcanic origin with a substantial portion of ripiddu (lapilli and eruptive pumice) intermixed with red soils from the Sahara Desert deposited here by the aforementioned winds. The sandy soils drain rapidly, forcing the roots to dig deep in search of moisture and nutrients.
The characteristics of the vineyard are illustrated in the chart below.
Vigna Bosco
The Vinudilice wines are made from grapes sourced from Vigna Bosco, a vineyard nestled within the depths of a holly oak forest 1300 meters up. This vineyard lays claim to being the highest in Europe.
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| 100+-year-old vines in Vigna Bosco (Photo courtesy of Sarah May Grunwald. Used with permission) |
The varieties planted here are Alicante, Grecanico, Minella, plus some other unidentified varieties. They are co-vinified to produce a field-blend Rosato. The wines are matured in old oak casks and concrete.
Calderara Vineyards
The Vinupetra wines are made with grapes from a 0.5-ha plot in the Calderara vineyards of the Feudo di Mezzo district on the mountain's north face. The varieties included in the blend are Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, Alicante, and Francisis. The vines here are in excess of 100 years old and are planted alberello style and at 10,000 vines/ha.
Winemaker
Salvo decries the use of the words "natural wine." There is no "all natural" wine he says. "It is a marketing ploy" as vines left to their own designs would seek to maximize reproducibility rather than great winemaking fruit. The wine grape is a human contrivance and there is nothing natural about that.Salvo describes as making "human wines." Human wines, as he sees it, is a "continuation of the agricultural and viticultural practices of our ancestors plus alberello and Palmento plus the sharing and harmony of work with our fellow winemakers and our family." The goal of human wines is to "make wine while also respecting mankind and the environemnt."
Yet, if one were to consider the natural-wine bucket in today's winemaking arena, Salvo Foti is as natural as they come. I have previously discussed his traditional, low-impact, sustainable farming practices built on respect for the land and the people who work it. And that philosophy, and those practices, extend into the cellar.
If the laws allowed it, Salvo would make all his wines using the traditional Palmento (he owns a functioning Palmento on the Vigna Caselle property) but, lacking that option, he ferments instead in oak vats using indigenous yeasts and no temperature control (By the time of crush, temperature on the mountain is cold enough to allow that practice without unduly stressing the yeasts and resulting in the production of off-odors or stuck or sluggish fermentations.). Wines are never filtered and minimal SO₂ is used at bottling. Wines are racked and bottled according to the phases of the moon.
If the laws allowed it, Salvo would make all his wines using the traditional Palmento (he owns a functioning Palmento on the Vigna Caselle property) but, lacking that option, he ferments instead in oak vats using indigenous yeasts and no temperature control (By the time of crush, temperature on the mountain is cold enough to allow that practice without unduly stressing the yeasts and resulting in the production of off-odors or stuck or sluggish fermentations.). Wines are never filtered and minimal SO₂ is used at bottling. Wines are racked and bottled according to the phases of the moon.
As regards production, all three of the estate's wines undergo direct pressing of the whole grapes with static and natural decantation of the must for 30 hours. The Palmento Caselle and Aurora (90/10 Carricante/Minella) are both fermented in stainless steel tanks for 15 to 20 days while the Vigna di Milo (100% Carricante) is fermented for 13 to 15 days in 2500L wooden barrels. Native yeasts are added to facilitate fermentation. The wines are aged in fermentation-similar vessels, 6 months for the stainless steel cadre, 12 months for the Vigna di Milo. The Palmento Caselle and Vigna di Milo are racked five times while the Aurora is racked three times.
Lecturer/Teacher/Wine Marketer/Researcher
During his career, Salvo has "carried out numerous winemaking internships and courses in Italy and France ... he has extended his work to other areas, including the marketing of wines and scientific research in the oenological sector in collaboration with national institutes and universities. As a teacher, he has organized tasting courses and courses for sommeliers. He has been a freelance lecturer in oenology at the 'Wine Manager' courses at Italian Professional Schools."
During his research work, Salvo has published numerous studies and technical books on viticulture and collaborated with various newspapers in the wine sector. Some of these publications include: Methods of marketing viticulture products in the area (Thesis at the Department of Agriculture – University of Catania, 1987); Wine in the history of Sicily today, at table and with the consumer (CO.S.P.A. Edizioni, Catania, 1989); Pantelleria and its wines (Enotria, Milan, 1990); Study on the nature and content of certain classes of polyphenols of grapes produced in Eastern Sicily (Enotecnico, Asti, 1993); Wine in Calatrava (Etna Territorio, Catania, 1995); Wine tasting (L’Oculista Italiano, Catania, 1996); Aromatic Precursors present in some grapes of Eastern Sicily(Asti 1997); Etna. The wines of the Volcano (Catania, 2001-2005); How to Drink Well (Bonanno Publisher, Acireale, 2002).
Terminated Strategic Partnerships
I Vigneri
Salvo had formed an organization called I Vigneri which was comprised of like-minded grape growers and producers operating in Etna and eastern Sicily. This organization was modeled after a similarly skilled trade guild that dated back to 1435. Articles of Constitution were drawn up in 2009.
In addition to work on their personal properties (if so endowed), members of the organization were available to work the vineyards of clients, all work based on the I Vigneri principles. The team tended alberello vines in season and rebuilt historic lava terraces in the off-season. In 2010 an Enoteca was built in Randazzo to showcase the wines of the I Vigneri winegrowers and producers.
In 2024, with the dissolution of the I Vigneri Consortium, intellectual property and branding that had been shared with that organization reverted in full to I Vigneri di Salvo Foti & Figli.
Salvo Foti - Kevin Harvey Partnership
Salvo's work on Pietra Marina caught the eye of Kevin Harvey of US-based Rhys Vineyards and they eventually entered into a partnership to grow Carricante grapes at the Aeris Vineyard in Contrada Caselle. Salvo also planted a Carricante vineyard for Harvey in California, using I Vigneri practices and personnel. That Partnership recently came to an end with Harvey selling Aeris Vineyard to Mario Paoluzi of I Custodi delle Vigne dell'Etna. It is not clear as to the cause of Kevin's u-turn.
Salvo's work on Pietra Marina caught the eye of Kevin Harvey of US-based Rhys Vineyards and they eventually entered into a partnership to grow Carricante grapes at the Aeris Vineyard in Contrada Caselle. Salvo also planted a Carricante vineyard for Harvey in California, using I Vigneri practices and personnel. That Partnership recently came to an end with Harvey selling Aeris Vineyard to Mario Paoluzi of I Custodi delle Vigne dell'Etna. It is not clear as to the cause of Kevin's u-turn.
VINEI – HUMAN WINES(VI
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Foti is a quiet and soft-spoken man. At least those were the characteristics that he projected during the course of our meetings. But he also impressed as being extremely knowledgeable, having a strong sense of self, commitment to a set of ideals, and intensity of purpose. Etna wine owes a lot to this pioneer; and I see no reason why this will not continue to be the case out into the future.
©Wine -- Mise en abyme
