Winemaking on Mt. Etna

Mt Etna does not possess the continuous, deep-time, winemaking pedigree as does Burgundy and Barolo, the wines to which the region's product is most often compared. Rather, its winemaking environment is a patchwork of identities and experiences resident in the current occupants of the space and the boundaries imposed on that space by the "outside" world. And that patchwork, which the passage of time has not yet rendered irrelevant, is directly correlated to the origins of the parties:

• Unbroken chain -- these are the winemakers whose relatives have been making wine on the mountain for generations and the current winemaker is a direct descendant and has always been employed in winemaking. Barone di Villagrande and Salvo Foti, for example, fall into this category. Barone di Villagrande has been making wine in the current location since 1727 and is now in the 10th generation. One would expect that some traditional winemaking tools and practices would be evident in this environment.
• The comeback kids -- Relatively young and with an historical association with the mountain and its traditional winemaking practices. The current winemaker might have worked with his/her grandfather in the vineyards and then went off to do something else. The death of a family member, or the desire to "return to the land," have been the motivational forces. Winemaking at such an estate could run the gamut from traditional to modern, to include a mix of both environments.
• Newcomers -- within this category there are a number of sub-categories:
• Winemakers with experience outside the Mt Etna region and bringing that experience to bear in making wine on the mountain (Andrea Franchetti, as an example)
• Winemakers with experience outside the Mt Etna region but hiring or partnering with local expertise (Kevin Harvey of Rhys Vineyards with Salvo Foti; Gaja and Graci)
• Owners with expertise outside the wine industry who brings in an international consultant
• Owners with expertise outside the wine industry who employ a local winemaker for the effort.
• Owners with no winemaking experience who learn on the job (Frank Cornelissen)

With this frame, let us explore the Mt Etna winemaking environment as evidenced in the practices of selected entities.

Winemaking Approach
For the most part, Etna producers make conventional wines but, as is true in most wine regions today, there are a few natural-wine adherents in town. Examples include Salvo Foti, Frank Cornelissen and Vini Scirto (The former two dwarf the latter in terms of repute and name recognition.).

Salvo Foti 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 Foti with Lidia Rizzo

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 described 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. He ferments 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.

Frank Cornelissen does not add sulfur to combat oxidation or micro-organisms. Wines are fermented by indigenous yeasts in small, food-grade plastic tubs. To ensure vintage integrity, all yeasts resident in the cellar are killed prior to the start of wine production. Fermentation is conducted with yeasts brought into the cellar on the grapes.

Frank Cornelissen

Vini Scirto is a small estate located in Passopisciaro and run by a cute, lovey-dovey couple named Giuseppe and Valeria. The estate uses no chemical fertilizers or pesticides in the vineyard and all treatments and harvesting are done manually. According to the duo, "We have completely banned chemistry from both the land and the winery ... The only chemistry we use is that of love."

Giuseppe and Valeria

Picking Decision

When to harvest is one of the most important decisions for the winemaker. It is a decision that cannot be undone. The winemaker will pick at optimal ripeness but optimal ripeness is a function of the style of wine being pursued. If you are looking for "Parker Points" your optimal pick time will be later than the winemaker who is pursuing balance. The decision on optimal ripeness should be drawn from a number of objective (sugar, acid, pH, ratio between sugar and acid) and subjective (color, ease of removal of berries from pedicel, texture, aroma, flavor) criteria.

All of the wineries reviewed sought to pick at optimal ripeness. Terra Costantino harvests based on sugar and acid levels (as determined by tasting and analysis). The appropriate pick date for Barone di Villagrande grapes is set based on sugar:acid ratios (the estate seeks a 2:1 ratio). Calabretta and Franchetti seek perfect ripeness. In pursuing a Chardonnay that rivals Burgundy, Vini Franchetti determines pick-time as follows: "The harvest is quite fussy, as we pick little portions of the vineyard every day, tasting the berries trailing along the terraces day after day, harvesting only when each individual cluster is ripe."

Harvesting
The majority of these grapes are picked by hand to minimize damage as well as to provide a first-level of selection in the field. The grapes are placed in small containers (to minimize crushing pressures) and then transported to the winery as quickly as possible. It is obviously much more expensive to manual-harvest with in-field selection than it is to machine-harvest but high-quality grapes are a requirement for high-quality wines.

Harvest Reception

Terra Costantino follows up on the first selection in the vineyard with a second selection
at a sorting table in the harvest reception area as is the case for Tenuta di Fessina. Grapes are generally destemmed and crushed after sorting and placed into fermentation vessels.

Fermentation Management

Fermentation Vessels
The dominant fermentation vessel employed in Etna winemaking is a temperature-controlled stainless steel tank (25, 50, and 75 hL in the case of Tenuta di Fessina) but other examples abound. For example: at Calabretta, small- and medium-sized barrels are deployed; 500- to 700-hl barrels are used at Pietradolce; and small food-grade plastic tubs at Cornelissen. At Terra Costantino, cru reds are fermented in concrete tanks of varying dimensions while the top whites are fermented in barrels.

"Cold Soak (Pre-fermentation Maceration)

• Wine and skin interaction prior to fermentation in order to extract color and phenols 
• Generally conducted at low temperature to inhibit micro-organism growth and to prevent premature fermentation 
• Most often associated with red wines but is utilized in the construction of skin-contact white wines.

Most of the winemakers that I interviewed on the mountain pursue crisp white wines and so do not employ cold soaks. Frank Cornelisson and Pietradolce (with its Etna Bianco) do employ skin contact in the making of their white wines. Tenuta di Fessina employs a cold soak for its red wines.

Alcoholic Fermentation
Both indigenous and inoculated fermentations are common on the mountain. Those winemakers who adhere to natural and/or sustainable principles are most likely to utilize indigenous yeasts in their ferments. In the case of red wine ferments, the cap is kept in contact with the juice by way of a mix of punchdowns and pumpovers.

Post-Fermentation Maceration
Most of the Etna red wines are subjected to a post-fermentation maceration. Pietradolce reds, for example, are fermented/macerated for 20 days in 500 - 700 hl barrels. Substances extracted during the maceration include: aromatic compounds, aromatic precursors, phenols and polyphenols, unsaturated lipids, nitrogen, and potassium.

Early-consumption wines are macerated for shorter periods (allows good extraction from the skin (color and enough tannins to ensure its stability) while avoiding the harsh tannins resident in the seeds). Extended-bottle-aging wines are generally macerated for longer periods and thus gain the benefits of the “high molecular weight tannins” which polymerize and precipitate out in the bottle. These tannins soften up over time, while aromas and flavors develop.

Andrea Franchetti does not macerate his Nerello wines. His first three vintages of this wine were not impressive (a problem was with his winemaking technique rather than with the cultivar, he surmised) so, in 2004, he changed his approach (Camuto). The fix that he settled on?

• He ceased macerating on the skin
• He lowered the fermentation temperature
• He moved from barrique to botti for aging.

Franchetti, as cited by Camuto: "You see, I learned that the best part of the Nerello grape is not in the skins, like with the Bordeaux grapes. Its all in the juice."

This is not a widely held view on the mountain based on the number of wineries that macerate today.

Malolactic Fermentation (MLF)
In practice, most red wines undergo MLF. The process is encouraged in cooler areas where grapes have high malic acid content; in cases where the wine is aged in oak barrels; and when the wine style calls for long-term aging in bottle.

Easy-drinking red wines would not materially benefit from the organoleptic changes resulting from MLF. The goal in the case of these wines are to carry the fruity flavors to the market at the lowest possible cost and in the shortest time possible.

Aging

A wide variety of aging regimes are employed on Mt Etna. For example:

• Tenuta di Fessina -- After fermentation the wine is transferred to used oak tonneaux and 35-hL barrels for aging. Wines are bottled only when they are deemed ready.
• The Franchetti cru wines are subjected to 18 months aging in large neutral oak barrels
• The entry-level wines of Pietradolce are aged for 3 months while the more complex wines are aged between 14 and 20 months.
• At Cornelissen, red grapes are lightly pressed and then placed in large fiberglass containers, if destined for early bottling, or into epoxy-lined, underground amphoras for longer-aged wines.

35-hL barrels at Tenuta di Fessina

Fiberglass containers at Cornelissen

Underground amphoras at Cornelissen

The Barone di Villagrande cellar was built in 1858 to help realize a vision of dual production lines. Prior to its construction, everyone made a Rosato by blending red and white wines. Barone di Villagrande knew that it made a great white wine so decided to build its cellar to allow two production lines. The vats were built in place and the cellar built around it. The vats are made of chestnut and are either 22,000L, 18,000L, or 500L.

Vats built in the 1850s

Some premium wines are aged in bottle prior to market release in order to take advantage of reductive changes to tannins (softer), acid (softer), and flavor compounds (increased complexity). 

The table below is provided to show the Barone di Villagrande aging strategy across its product line.

Wine	Appellation	Variet(y)ies	Training System	Fermentation	Aging	Yield
Etna Bianco Superiore	DOC	Carricante	Guyot, spurred cordon			50 hl/ha
Etna Rosso	do.	Nerello Mascalese (80%), Nerello Mantellato/Nerello Cappuccio (20%)	do.	On skins 6 - 10 days	12 mos barrel; 24 mos bottle	do.
Etna Rosato	do.	Nerello Mascalese 90%, Carricante 10%	Guyot	On skins 12-18 hours		do.
Sciara	IGT	Merlot (80%), Nerello  Mascalese (20%)	Guyot, spurred cordon	On skin 20 days	18 - 24 mos  in barrel; 6 mos in bottle	do.
Fiore	do.	Carricante (90%), Chardonnay (10%)	do.	In wood	8 - 9 months in wood	do.
Legno di Conzo	Etna Bianco Superiore DOC	Carricante	do.	In oak barrels	1 year in wood; 1 year in bottle

Fining and Filtering
These practices are not widely employed on the mountain. Franchetti does employ bentonite fining in the production of his contrada wines.

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I will cover the wines that result from these processes in my next post.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme