Calabretta Vini: An Etna pioneer obscured by the trees

Giuseppe Benanti founded Tenuta di Castiglione in 1988 and, working with Salvo Foti, designated the 1990 vintages of Pietra Marina Etna Bianco and Rovitello Etna Rosso for bottling. These initiatives could be characterized as the opening salvos of the Etna quality-wine campaign. A campaign that was broadened and deepened with the arrival of Franchetti and Cornelissen (2001) and Marco de Grazia (2002).

But this story skips over one of the more meaningful, if unheralded, developments in Etna quality winemaking: the bottling of the first Calabretta wines in 1997; almost 10 years after the Benanti launch, but a full four years before the initial efforts of Franchetti and Cornelissen (And Franchetti's effort was launched with purchased fruit.). The Calabretta story is worth the telling; and I do so herein.

The Calabretta story begins in the early 1900s with the marriage of Gaetano Calabretta and donna Grazia. Some vineyards came along with donna Grazia's hand and Gaetano added to the stock with savvy purchases. In the 1920s and 1930s, wines made from the harvested grapes were sold in bulk to customers in northern Italy.

After WWII, Salvatore, the couples son, married donna Concetta and she brought additional substantial holdings to family stocks.

Through the years, the Calabretta wine had been sold in bulk to restaurants and private customers. In 1997, Massimo (Salvatore’s son) and Massimiliano (Massimo's son) opted to bottle their best wines to sell on the commercial market. Massimiliano was, at the time, helping to cultivate the vineyards, a situation necessitated by his grandfather's advancing age (he was 80 years old at that time). As he relayed to me, he wanted to make some wine with his grandparents and to "revive an old dream of my family to bottle wine and not only to sell bulk wine."

Massimo and Massimiliano

I asked Massimiliano about the market forces they were responding to and he said "none." It was, he said, "a jump in the darkness." They had this idea that Etna could become famous. They had visited Barolo and seen its success and, knowing the Etna wine, felt that it could be successful also. Market creation was difficult initially but the passage of time has vindicated their decision.

I asked Massimiliano about influences and he said there were none. "No producer influenced my decision ... Benanti was a real pioneer of Etna quality wine and many later producers who helped the Etna renaissance found specialized workers because Benanti trained them. Etna owes a lot to Giuseppe Benanti. But I was not influenced by anyone."

There were no wineries operating in Randazzo at the time of the Calabretta launch and the mayor called to congratulate them on the initiative.

The historical Calabretta vineyards consisted of 7 ha of 60 - 80-year-old Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappucio vines located in Randazzo. The old vine stocks have been supplemented with an additional 3 ha. Within the past 5 years total vineyard hectares has been expanded with new plantings of Nerello Mascalese (1 ha), Carricante (1 ha), and Pinot Noir (1 ha).

120-year-old vine

Another 120-year-old vine on the Calabretta estate

Massimiliano and an ancient Carricante vine

The vineyards are distributed among the following northern contrade:

The estate adheres to a sustainable, noninterventionist approach in both its grape-growing and winemaking activities. The grape vines are grown among olive trees and fruit orchards and never see chemical pesticides or herbicides (small quantities of copper sulphate and sulphurum are used to combat powdery and downy mildew). Old vineyards are head pruned while newer vineyards are trained Guyot.

Calabretta seeks to harvest perfectly ripe grapes and is aided in this quest by the volcanic soil, the temperature differential between daytime and nighttime temperatures, and the high incidence of solar exposure. Grapes are hand-harvested and fermented with indigenous yeasts in small- and medium-sized barrels. The century-old traditions utilized at the estate are illustrated in the chart below.

Experimentation

Early in new winery's life, Massimiliano read about the contribution of single grape varieties to a blend. Wanting to test this out for himself he went in search of single-variety vineyards to source grapes for experiments. The experiments encompassed Nerello Cappuccio, Minnella bianco, and, later, Minnella nera. These varieties were fermented separately in small steel tanks and then aged separately. He then tasted each variety and found their real features

The Nerello Cappuccio was aged in old barrique. He found this wine to be fresh, elegant, full of color, and a pleasure in the mouth. He tested it at a 20% blend with Nerello Mascalese and came to understand why the DOC maintained the blend at that level. This was a really difficult experiment the first time around as the north slope does not normally grow large quantities of "real" Nerello Cappuccio. He eventually found what he wanted in the Pippo Anzolone's vineyard in Calderara. The first vintage was 210 litres and they bought a small used barrique of 200 litres in order to successfully conduct the experiment. 

He found the White Minnella to be fresh, mineral, and lovely. Simple, but, as he describes it, "a beautiful and lovely wine."

Massimiliano took a different approach with the Minnella nera. He produced 80 to 100 litres for 4 years. He noted that the wine is beautiful and, when young, is similar in smell to an Etna Pinot Noir. "It is a beautiful red but its for summer and 80 liters is too small to make a real experiment."

Wines

The estate's wines are shown in the table below.

Label	Variet(y)ies	Contrada	Description
Cala Cala Rosso			Non-vintage cuvée
Rosato	Nerello Mascalese	Calderara	Mostly from young vineyards
Vigna Vecchie		Calderara/Taccione
Sara	Nerello Mascalese (with some occasional NC)	Passopisciaro/Feudo di Mezzo	550 m
Nonna Concetta	Nerello Mascalese (with some occasional NC)	Passopisciaro/Feudo di Mezzo	680 m
Piedefranco	Nerello Mascalese	Taccione	Ungrafted
Cappuccio	Nerello Cappuccio		Young vineyards
Pinot Nero		Zocconero?Battiati	Eight different clones of best clones for red wines
Gaio Gaio Rosso			Young vineyards. Sepcial fermentation to be more fruit-forward
Contrada dei Centenari		Solicchiata
Carricante	Carricante
Minella Bianco
Elisir			Semi-carbonic fermentation. Young vines
Cala Cala Bianco	Grillo

None of the above wines are DOC because he has a problem with the taste. He thinks that Etna wines are too acidic and the DOC will not allow malolactic fermentation to ameliorate. He wants more roundness in his wines and less acidity. He prefers lower levels of acidity than the DOC supports.

On the Saturday morning of a past Contrada dell'Etna weekend, we grabbed a quick coffee and headed off to a tasting of Calabretta wines at the estate's cantina which is housed in a three-level building in the heart of Randazzo. Upon arrival, we were greeted by Salvatore Caggegi, at the time the estate's Agronomist and Cellar Master.

The first wine tasted on the premises was the 2017 Vigne Vecchi. This wine is made from grapes grown on ungrafted 80-year-old vines in Centenarian vineyards in the Contrada Calderara. The variety mix is 97% Nerello Mascalese with the remainder Nerello Cappuccio. The wines are macerated for a short while in steel vats and then transferred to large Slavonian vats for extended aging.

Writing about this wine in the Wall Street Journal (11/12/15), Lettie Teague described it thusly: "... the style of this red is different from other more modern Etna Rosso bottlings. It is a soft Old World-style wine, with notes of earth and tobacco reminiscent of a traditional Barolo." This particular wine was too young to exhibit the characteristics of which she spoke but manifested both dark and red fruit on the nose and rich blue fruit on the palate. Smooth.

Example of the large vats on premises

Salvatore Caggegi, Calabretta Cellar Master and
Agronomist

Cellar heaven

Sue, Parlo, and Lidia

The 2017 Passopisciaro is sourced from 60 - 80-year-old vines, is aged from 8 - 10 months in used barriques, and is released to the market after 1 year. Vinosity. Structured, spicy red cherry. Light-bodied and high-toned. Soft tannins. Persistent, bitter finish.

Parlo, Brandon, Lidia, Salvatore, and Sue.

The 2017 Feudo di Mezzo is 100% Nerello Mascalese. Cherry and dark olives on the nose. Faded strawberry on the palate. Light but textured. Smoky.

The 2017 Cappuchio was aromatic, more so than the Nerello Mascalese. Match flint and spice. Short finish. Unimpressive.

The 2017 Pinot Noir was rich but seemed to lack balancing acidity.

We then doubled back and tasted a 2012 Vigne Vecchi. Brandon described this vintage as producing some of the most concentrated wines in Mt Etna's history. This particular wine exhibited tobacco, ginger, port, balsamic, and green herbs on the nose. Concentrated on the palate with port, amarone, and walnut flavors. Powerful with strong tannins and a cupric finish.

Late last year I tasted a 2016 version of the above wine along with Brandon and Enzo Raneri and found it to be excellent. Sublime, smooth, balanced with clean, ripe red fruit and fully resolved tannins. Good finish.

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Massimiliano lauds the heralded pioneers on Etna. He feels that they did a great job of marketing the capabilities of the volcano. Very important, he says. He also identifies the idea of crus as emanating from Franchetti and Marc de Grazia and he liked the conception.

Calabretta was preceded only by Benanti in the quality-wine quest yet Benanti, Franchetti, Cornelissen, Foti, and De Grazia all garnered more critical acclaim and visibility and more financial success than did Calabretta Vini. A number of contributing factors can be identified:

• Both Franchetti and de Grazia came into Etna with name recognition and familiarity with what it takes to get attention from the international press. de Grazia had helmed the winning Barolo Boys strategy while Franchetti had won some Bordeaux allies and wowed the wine press with his success at Tenuta di Trinoro. Both of these guys could call up Jancis Robinson and say I would like you to come taste my wines.
• Benanti had first mover advantage plus he had the skill of Salvo Foti on his team. He also had a groundbreaking white wine in his portfolio.
• All of the "foreigners" sought to craft wines for specific markets: Cornelissen was making an Etna wine but it was targeted to consumers who understood the natural wine message and taste. Marco had wielded barriques to good advantage in Barolo and utilized the same tools on Etna. The use of barriques in aging appealed to consumers who were after a richer, rounder feel than would be  traditional for Etna.
• Most, if not all, of the stalwarts were better capitalized than Calabretta. This meant that they could invest as necessary to rapidly respond to market needs, available vineyards, fruit procurement, etc.
• Calabretta Vini had no sense of market needs. They had just "jumped in." In addition, this was during the period when "Parkerization" was in full force worldwide. It took a lot of courage to be traditional in that timeframe.
• Calabretta is not part of the DOC and thus does not get to take advantage of the assistance and initiatives originating from that institution.

With all of the challenges, however, Calabretta has persevered and today produces an extensive portfolio of quality wines. Its practice of not releasing wines before they are ready to drink means that, on average, the Vigne Vecche is released 10 years after its harvest date. And it generally drinks beautifully upon its release. I drink it whenever I can.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Marco de Grazia: Pioneering modern winemaking techniques on Mt. Etna

I am in the process of writing a series on the Mt Etna wine pioneers and have, to date, covered the late Giuseppe Benanti (Benanti Viticoltori), Salvo Foti (I Vigneri Salvo Foti & Figli). the late Andrea Franchetti of Vini Franchetti, and Frank Cornelissen of Azienda Agricola Frank Cornelissen. I continue herein with Marco de Grazia of Tenute Delle Terre Nere.

Tenuta Delle Terre Nere (DTN) is located in the township of Randazzo on the north flank of the mountain and owns 45 ha of vineyards distributed between 30 parcels in nine crus, seven of which are in the north and one each in the east and south. But DTN did not start out that way.

The estate is owned by Marco de Grazia, he of Barolo Boys fame. Marco came to the world's attention as the leader of a band of young winemakers who had upended the traditional world of Barolo. Prior to his intervention, Barolo wines were subjected to lengthy maceration in large wooden vessels and required significant aging to become approachable. Marco encouraged a group of young winemakers to adopt the French style of shorter maceration periods and aging in barriques in order to make the wines approachable earlier.

This approach -- dubbed the "modern style" -- was anathema to the traditionalists in Barolo and many a relationship was fractured as a result. Marco was undeterred by the waves and took these winemakers on tours of their markets, a practice not heretofore common to the region. These marketing tours served to forge links between the winemakers and their customers and led to significant market growth for this new style of Barolo and to de Grazia becoming one of the most influential importers of Italian wines in the US market.

Prior to his entry into the wine industry, Marco was in academia, studying Philosophy in the US. A career shift in the 1980s saw him returning to Italy to work with "small, quality-focused wine producers." He founded Marco de Grazia Selections shortly thereafter with the goal of introducing fine Italian wines to the US market.

Marco came to Sicily in 1998 or 1999, he says, summoned by a producer who wanted to place his wines on the de Grazia Selections list. He drove around the island tasting wines and came to the conclusion that the region had high potential at attractive prices. This potential spurred him into buying a small vineyard and then to seek out someone who could work said vineyard and a winery that would make his wine.

According to Brandon Tokash, my good friend, and the repository of Mt Etna institutional knowledge, "Marco started bottling under his own label of Terre Nere with the 2002 vintage, a small production vinified and bottled at Benanti. 2003 was a bigger bottling though still at Benanti. 2004 was the first vintage actually bottled at Marco's estate."

Marco, in his discussion with grape-collective.com, bears out this narrative. When he arrived, he said, there were only four to six people making wine and there were many abandoned vineyards. The wine being made was produced by some of the old folks who had kept their small vineyards going.

In his effort, he focused on revitalizing old, abandoned vineyards and cultivating indigenous red grapes in a manner that was respectful of traditional Etna viticulture. To this he added his true expertise: his knowledge of modern winemaking techniques. It was de Grazia’s work that brought the first glimmerings of the spotlight on Mt Etna wine.

Marco substantiates Brandon’s recollection as to timing but adds more detail as to the early wines produced. The first wine produced in 2002 was a Guardiola, a single-vineyard wine. In 2003 separate wines were made from Guardiola and Calderara fruit. Feudo di Mezzo wine was added in 2004.

Marco’s early wines were impounded by the Anti-Fraud authorities because you could not bottle a wine with the name of the vineyard on the label. He would be fined, would pay the fine, and then the wine would be released. According to Marco, this happened through the 2004 vintage until he was able to convince folks in 2005 that it would be beneficial to put the vineyard name on the label. This approach was ratified by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2011.

According to Nesto and di Savino (The World of Sicilian Wine), de Grazia had a number of advantages coming out of the gate:

1. He had strong ties to the international wine trade
2. His significant experience working with some of the most talented winemakers in Italy
3. A new facility with enough room to house his production as well as to vinify the wines of small producers who had grapes but no crush capability.

In discussing the de Grazia wines in a 2008 article (Etna — the burgundy of the Mediterranean?), Jancis Robinson stated thusly:

They are pretty potent. Even his basic Etna Rosso, a wonderfully characterful fruity mouthful … is upwards of 14% alcohol and his special contrada bottlings are sometimes nearly 16%. But they have great freshness and balance, as though those lava deposits are reigning in mere methyl alcohol. And then one he has made for the first time in 2006 from a special parcel of pre-phylloxera vines by his Etna winery is truly phenomenal.

Contrade as territorial designations have gone the way of the dodo bird but not so its relevance for wine. According to Nesto and di Savino, of the cadre of new winemakers to breach the Etna walls in the early 2000s, Marco de Grazia was the first to "promote the connection between Burgundy Crus and Etna contrade and between contrade and lava flows." Further, say the authors, "Certain Etna producers support contrada labeling because it connects Etna to the concept of terroir and, from a marketing standpoint, models Etna on Burgundy, the wine zone with which the concept of terroir is most associated."

I visited DTN during my first trip to Etna and had the pleasure of being taken on a tour of the facilities by Marco and participating in a tank-tasting with him and a bottle-tasting with his winemaker.

Lidia Rizzo, author, Brandon Tokash, and Marco de Grazia

Marco shared with me his vision of the Etna DOC as a region on par with the Côte de Nuit region of Burgundy, with cru areas resulting from differences in soil types, altitude, exposure, and micro-climate. He has been an untiring proponent of cru-labeled wines and follows that principle with the grapes for his wines.

The estate is farmed organically and focuses on vineyard management and will purchase grapes from growers who adhere to those principles. 

The wines produced by the estate currently are shown below.

Grapes for the wines are hand-harvested, sorted, and fermented with native yeasts. They are macerated for 10 - 15 days prior to malolactic fermentation. The wines are aged in wood for approximately 18 months.

In addition to the base Etna Bianco, the estate produces a number of single-vineyard white wines which are 100% Carricante. Marco explains: "I decided to produce it (100% Carricante, ed.) in 2007 after having been lucky enough to taste a 42-year-old Carricante on two separate occasions. This wine turned out to be so beautiful, so impeccable and vigorous despite its Friday age, that I was moved to try to produce something similar. ... The Vigne Niche Selection is the result."

The two white crus from the northern area are made from Carricante grapes from old and young vineyards because it is difficult to source white grapes in a red grape area. The Vigne Niche wines are fermented and aged in 10 hL barrels.

As for the non-north Carricante vineyards, the Milo property was bought in 2019, the same year as was the first vintage from Montalto.

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There is no doubt that winemaking on Etna gained greater visibility earlier due to the presence of Marco in its winemaking ranks. But Marco was not just a celebrity. He put in the hard work to understand the region, to make the connection between its architecture and Burgundy, and to drag his compatriots into the arena kicking and screaming. The upsurge of contrada bottlings today owes much to the early work done by Marco.

Marco's efforts on North-face whites are constrained by his own admission that it is difficult to source white grapes in a predominantly red-grape area but also by the flow of white-wine investment dollars into Milo and, to a lesser extent, the south.

In any case, Delle Terre Nere was there from the beginning of the "foreign wave" and continues to be a driving force along the way.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Brian’s 50th Birthday Celebration: Burgundy Day 1

Our first full day together on Brian’s 50th birthday trip included travel by van from Paris to Pommard (our home base for the remainder of the trip) and then either a walk to lunch in Volnay or a tasting at an as -yet-to-be-determined winery. Dinner was scheduled to be prepared and served at the house by the house Chef and staff.

We were warned about the importance of being on time so everyone showed up bright an early for the onboarding. Fred and I went looking for an early morning takeout coffee joint and, after some initial frustration, eventually found one. By the time we wended our way back to the hotel, the vans had arrived and been loaded up. Including my knapsack. I am uncomfortable if my phone and knapsack are not in contact with my body (great chance of leaving them behind) so I dug through the luggage, found my knapsack, and placed it where I intended to sit.

The seating worked out such that Brian and his relatives occupied one van and the “outsiders” the other. Now, if I had been traveling with my relatives, we would have formed a prayer circle, asked for traveling mercies, hugged, and then boarded. This group just jumped into the vans and left.

My first inkling that we might have a problem was when Fred began tapping the outside of his pants pocket as though he had lost something. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “My Apple Watch is showing that my Laptop is back at the hotel,” he said. Two things were wrong here: (i) If his laptop was missing, why was he tapping his pocket? and (ii) Why did he not secure his knapsack (like I did) when we returned from the coffee run? 

We had traveled a bit but we were still within the Paris city limits. We would, obviously, have to return to the hotel to retrieve his laptop but who was going to call Brian in the next van and tell him that? Who was going to let him know that his carefully crafted, immaculate schedule was about to be violated by a doctor? The doctor, that’s who.  We pulled over and stopped. And the second van did the same. Fred went out to tell his story (I did not accompany him — I did not want to see the blood on the floor). Turned out they decided to look in the back of that van and Fred’s backpack was laying there, not a care in the world. It seems that with the laptop not proximate to the watch, the watch was registering the last place the two had synced up. 

We resumed our travel — and, by the way, kudos to the team of drivers who took us around during the entirety of our stay. They were warm, helpful, considerate, and always ready with a helpful recommendation.

We made very good time, arriving at our destination a little before lunch. We were staying at La Maison de Pommard and were welcomed effusively by Anda.

After we had been shown around, and made the appropriate noises, including expressing our satisfaction, nay, amazement, at the space, folks started asking “what’s next.” Brian had been having whispered discussions with Anda and informed us that timing (now post-lunch), day of the week (Sunday), and weather (raining) rendered external lunch sources non-existent and tasting opportunities negligible.

The house came with a fully stocked wine fridge and a backup cellar in the basement so we decided to call in Pizza and call it a day. Turned out to be a great decision. 

Fred, Laurie, and I had left Tatttinger with three gift bottles but there were not at drinking temperature. I plunked mine into the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of Dhondt-Greeley Premier Cru Champagne from the house stash. I had never had this champagne but the host recommended it highly. She was correct. It was absolutely fantastic. And so began an absolutely awesome day, an indicator of what a fine time we would have together creating Brian’s 50th.

The tables in the lunch room were spread out; and that is how we deployed initially. But as the juice flowed, and the food arrived, we wanted to operate more as a single unit; so we  strung the tables together. I didn’t have great Pizza on my bingo card for Burgundy but that number played. And the conversation; insightful and enlightening. I personally had some phenomenal discourse with David and Jen, the people I knew least coming on to this trip. I really like them.

The other guys could only take so much of this stuff so they snuck off; and took their significant others with them. The first indication that I had that they were not in the house was when I received a text from Fred saying that they were tasting at a winery around the corner and I should come join them. I texted him back asking exactly where they were. Crickets. I went out, looked right, looked left, and then came back in. I was not going to desert my soul mates for this crew who flew the nest silently. 

They eventually returned with a number of sad stories. There was not much happening around. They fell in on this winery that turned out to be ungrateful.. The people were bad because Matt dropped one of the bottles they bought and it broke and the woman would not replace it. Of course the winery’s responsibility ceased the minute they left the premises. Entitled tourists. They came home grumbling; but they brought additional wines for the cause. Sweet.

This was a lively afternoon filled with great wine, conversation, food, music, laughter, and camaraderie. Lovely. Then we had to go prepare for dinner. 

I don’t know how come we didn’t all fall asleep and miss dinner. When i arrived, one of the last, if I remember correctly, Brian, Matt, and Fred had matching tee shirts which informed of the fact that this was all of their birtday parties, with their births being 10 years removed. 

We settled in for dinner and it was fabulous. The first course was a fish and i had not seen fish presented in this manner before. It looked more like a dumpling than fish. I thought i would have a piece to be courteous but it was stunning: light, airy, full of flavor emanating both from the fish and the accompanying sauce. 

The second course was a chicken which demoted Colonel Sanders to a private. This was followed by a cheese plate and dessert. The wines shown were the wines consumed

over the course of the day.

Wonderful evening capping a wonderful day, I thought, as i dragged myself up the stairs. Brian was in great spirits. Everything fell in place perfectly. His guests were happy. His wife was happy. His kid was happy. And tomorrow was still to come.

Note — a number of the pictures included herein are sourced from Brian.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme