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.

********************************************************************************************************

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