Timeline of the Etna wine renaissance and contributions of the pioneers

I have recently concluded a series of posts on the pioneers (Giuseppe Benanti,  Salvo Foti, Franchetti, Cornelissen, Marco de Grazia, and Calabretta Vini) of the Etna wine renaissance and summarize the key findings in this post.

First, as described by Salvo Foti in his recent Gambero Rosso interview, the Renaissance in Etna winemaking began in the early 1990s. Prior to the renaissance, 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.

The chart below shows the trajectory of the renaissance. It was launched by the quality-wine effort of Benanti, spearheaded by Salvo Foti and his technical supporting cast.

As the chart shows, Benanti had an almost 10-year headstart on Calabretta and 12 years on the earliest "foreigners." By the time the other entered the fray Benanti had already surveyed and mapped the soils of the various slopes, Shortly after Calabretta's entry Benanti expanded production on Monte Serra and became the first producer to source fruit from all slopes.Bennti was so comfortable with its winemaking that it changed the name of the winery to the family name and, in 2002, began producing a Metodo Classico sparkling wine from Carricante.

With all the advancements in the quality of the Benanti wines, international critical acclaim did not immediately follow. That acclaim came with the entry of the "foreigners" into the production space. 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.
• 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.

The contributions/legacy of the pioneering producers are as follows:

Benanti

From its founding in 1988 as Tenuta di Castiglione, Benanti has exhibited a proclivity for experimentation, innovation, and strategic property acquisition/de-acquisition. 

In a December 2016 note, Vinous mentioned Benanti as the "... first to believe and insist upon Etna's native grapes at a time when everyone on Sicily was rushing to plant Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot." In another mention, Vinous stated: "Credit must go to Benanti for having created the I Monovitigni series of wines, which showcased to great effect the characteristics and high quality of the likes of monovariety Nerello Cappucchio, Nerello Mascalese, and even Minella Bianco, at a time when little was known of these cultivars."

In a Wine Spectator article reporting on his death, Alberto Graci, an important voice among Etna winemakers, stated thusly: “Pippo Benanti was a charismatic, visionary and ambitious winegrower. He helped to set a glorious path for the wines of Etna, believing in their value from the beginning and investing with seriousness and passion to position them among the great areas of the world. We will all remember him with great respect.”

In the same Wine Spectator article, Alessio Planeta lauded Giuseppe as “… truly a pioneer, who started to believe very early in the beauty and potential of the wines from Mount Etna, and who travelled around the world to communicate these values.”

To me Giuseppe was the most significant of the Renaissance producers on Mt Etna. He was the first to recognize the need, and, further, took steps to address that need. And in a scientific way. And with native varieties, no less. 

Foti

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."

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.

Franchetti

Andrea's legacy is clear. He built two high-quality estates in two very different regions with differing grape varieties and grape-growing environments, all without the presence of a regional support system. He went into the Val d'Orcia boondocks and designed and built an enterprise that today produces some of the best Bordeaux-style wines coming out of Tuscany. He had no Consorzio to lean on for assistance. He had no surrounding collegial producers. Such an infrastructure does not even exist in the area to this day.

A similar situation existed at the time he came to Mt. Etna in that, even though the region had historical wine roots, with the exception of Benanti, there were few high quality wine producers. Franchetti brought his Trinoro style to Etna but realized pretty quickly that the formula was inapplicable there and made the adjustments necessary to produce a high-quality wine.

How has Franchetti contributed to the shaping of the wine direction on Etna? First, he was part of the initial group of outside investors who brought the potential of this region to the eyes of the wider world. Second, he showed that a Bordeaux cultivar (Petit Verdot) could be blended with an almost extinct cultivar (Cesanese d'Affile) to make a world-class, non-indigenous wine on the mountain. Third, his focus on the importance of contrada effects, both in the stable of wines that he produced and in his establishment and support of Contrada dell'Etna was the forerunner of the regions current thrust into Contrada-labeled wines.

Marco de Grazia

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.

Calabretta

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. 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 release. I drink it whenever I can.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Wine imitating art: Salvo Foti's Mt Etna through the lens of Art History

In a recent interview (11/9/25) with Gambero Rosso, Salvo Foti, the pillar of tradition in Mt Etna winemaking, described a Renaissance in Mt Etna winemaking and I could not help but place the entirety of his discussion within the context of the art history of that period. 

Salvo Foti and Author

The charts below (created for use in my art blog EverythingElse 238) illustrate the art historical period preceding the Renaissance as well as the sub-groupings into which the Renaissance itself is further divided.

In his interview, Foti describes the Renaissance in Etna winemaking as beginning in the early 1990s. In art historical terms, events before this would fall into the Gothic period. In this period, tagged by Foti as the late 80s - early 90s, 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.

"At the beginning of the 15th century, Italy experienced a cultural rebirth, a renaissance that would massively affect all sectors of society. Turning away from the preceding Gothic and Romanesque periods' iconography, Florentine artists spurred a rejuvenation of the glories of classical art in line with a more humanistic and individualistic emerging contemporary era. Based in this flourishing new environment that empowered people to fully immerse themselves in studies of the humanities, Early Renaissance artists began to create work intensified by knowledge of architecture, philosophy, theology, mathematics, science, and design. The innovations that emerged in art during this period would go on to cause reverberations, which continue to influence creative and cultural arenas today" (theartstory.org). 

There is no common agreement as to the trigger(s) of the Renaissance of the 15th century but Foti is declarative as to the Renaissance driving forces in the case of Etna winemaking: (i) Benanti's desire to become a quality wine producer (1988) and (ii) his (Salvo's) "historical and technical-scientific research in collaboration with Professor Rocco Di Stefano, Director of the Experimental Institute of Oenology in Asti."

Key artists of the Early Renaissance include such notable names as Masaccio, Donatello, Filippo Brunellschi, and Fra Angelico. Early players in the Etna Renaissance were, according to Salvo, Alice Bonacorsi, Valcerasa, Ciro Biondi, i Vigneri, and Il Cantanta.

"The High Renaissance, subsequently coined to denote the artistic pinnacle of the Renaissance, refers to a thirty-year period exemplified by the groundbreaking, iconic works of art being made in Italy during what was considered a thriving societal prime. A rejuvenation of classical art married with a deep investigation into the humanities spurred artists of unparalleled mastery whose creations were informed by a keen knowledge of science, anatomy, and architecture, and remain today, some of the most awe-inspiring works of excellence in the historical art canon (theartstory.org)." The notables of this period include, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci.

And then Salvo pivoted to talking about the role of "foreigners" in the Etna wine story. There is an underlying tone here that the rest of the world has gotten the narrative wrong. That the world sees the Renaissance in Etna winemaking as being synonymous with the arrival of Andrea Franchetti, Frank Cornelissen, and Marc de Grazia. As shown above, Salvo has gone to great lengths to place the Renaissance in a prior period. What they brought, he stipulates, was an enormous burst in production, promotion, and sales.

Having spent time with all three of these named producers, I am of the opinion that they also contributed to the fabric and scope of winemaking on the mountain. Regardless, this was a step forward for Mt Etna, one which I equate, in art historical terms, to the High Renaissance.

Mannersism emerged at the end of the High Renaissance and manifested as a "stylized twist" on Renaissance classicism. The name derives from the Italian word maniera which translates as "style" or "manner." Mannerism is viewed as a bridge between High Renaissance and Baroque. The chart above shows both the context and geographic distribution of the Mannerist school. As stated by the Tate Museum,

Rather than adopting the harmonious ideals associated with Raphael and Michelangelo, Mannerists went a step further to create highly artificial compositions which showed off their techniques and skills in manipulating compositional elements to create a sense of sophisticated elegance.

And this is the fear that Salvo has for Etna wines. He is concerned about those who come to Etna not to produce "Etna wines" but only "wines made on Etna." Salvo points out that the environment supports natural wines. luxury wines, artisanal wines, technological wines, and industrial wines. His fear is that "the exponential and sudden growth that is crossing the Etna wine will give space to improvisation, uncontrolled and without programming ..."

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Still waiting for the Etna Contrada maps

Etna producers and the Consorzio continue to stress the importance of Contrada as a differentiating factor for its wines (much as cru is for the wines of Burgundy). And I continue to be frustrated by the lack of definitive data to allow fact-based comparisons and analysis of the wines of the region.

At the close of the 2017 Contrada dell'Etna, I was under the impression that Alessandro Masnaghetti, the famed Piemontese Cartographer, would be contracted to produce Etna maps akin to his Barolo MGA maps. I saw Masnaghetti earlier this year at Galloni's La Festa del Barolo and asked him how things were coming along on the project. He indicated that discussions had begun but he had not been contracted for the effort.

The producers in the 2018 Contrada were sectioned by Commune (as was the case last year). The identifying mortar board also had a listing of the Contrade included in the Commune (see below for an example).

A map (pictured below) was handed out late in the morning of Contrada dell'Etna.

I had a number of issues with the map:

• It only captures the northern slope of the mountain
• It does not clearly delimit the Communes
• It is not clear which Contradas are associated with which Communes
• It is not clear where the boundaries fall between the various Contradas
• I am not sure that there is a one-to-one correlation between the Contradas listed on the map and the Contradas listed on the mortar boards
• The map does not draw as heavily as it could have from the Geological Map of Etna.

The topmost category for the map is the Commune and that is a practice that Etna producers should adhere to. For the north slope, currently, the Commune is used as the highest level but in the southeast, the classification is geographic -- Southeast. I recommend that the relevant Communes -- Milo, for example, be used instead to ensure consistency of presentation.

In discussing this issue with Massimiliano Calabretta (Calabretta Winery), he said that the real problem is that the Consorzio is awaiting the boundary lines from the Communes. "This is Italy," he says. "They wrote the boundaries rather than drawing them on a map."

When all is said and done, I think that the Consorzio has to provide the following types of data in order to allow quality comparative analyses:

• Delimited Contradas by Commune (with explanation if a Contrada spans multiple Communes)
• Size (ha) of each Contrada
• Exposition of each Contrada
• Elevation range of each Contrada
• Soil types for each Contrada
• Variety percentage by Contrada
• Producers sourcing fruit from each Contrada
• Cru bottlings for each Contrada
• Eventually, drawings showing ownership of each vineyard in a Contrada

This is by no means a comprehensive list but I would be happy to work with such a dataset.


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Vini Franchetti: The "pre-Socratic" Nerello Mascalese vintages on Mt Etna

In a personal communication post my visit to the Vini Franchetti Passopiciaro estate on the north face of Mt. Etna, Andrea Franchetti stated as follows: "I tried to make a Nerello that I liked right away, but wasn't able to until 2005 when I finally started getting it. Since then, our Nerello has been, I think, getting better because of new touches in the winemaking." In this post I will trace the early Franchetti Nerello Mascalese winemaking experiences and identify the changes which have led to the wines being among the leaders today.

Robert Camuto (Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey) provides telling insights into the Franchetti mindset and practices in those early years. In his visit to the Franchetti estate in the summer of 2009, he saw no Nerello Mascalese grapes planted there. In fact, "... Franchetti saw no need to plant local varieties when he could buy or lease Nerello from vineyards that were already established."

His perception of this early-times Franchetti is electric:

Most winemakers were coming to Etna to make their interpretations of Nerello, but Franchetti was here, it seemed, to interpret Franchetti. The others were like landscape painters who had come to paint the volcano; Franchetti was an abstractionist who had come to paint on the volcano. ... For other winemakers, Nerello Mascalese, with its delicate Pinot Noir color and structure, was part of the attraction. Franchetti, on the other hand, was here on Etna in spite of Etna.

Camuto reports that Franchetti told him, "I hated the stuff -- I thought it was coarse. I didn't want to use Nerello to make wine. I looked at it as an ingredient I had to use."

According to Camuto, the early Franchetti Nerello vintages "rolled out the Bordeaux new wave formulas that had worked so well for him at Tenuta di Trinoro" but the long maceration, and aging in barriques, produced a wine that was "as rude as it was rustic."

In an email communication with me, Andrea referred to the wines made before 2004 as the "pre-Socratic vintages."

In 2004, I tried to extract for a long period at low temperature before fermenting the berries; to no avail. I mixed some 2001 Trinoro Merlot in the 2002 Nerello Mascalese. I let the 2003 Nerello Mascalese start out with local wild yeast out of spite. No "philosophy" had been built.

Andrea recently sent me three vintages of this wine to try. They bear no resemblance to the Franchetti Nerello Mascalese wines of today.

The 2001 showed a much deeper color than one would expect from an aged Nerello Mascalese. Hint of Nerello on the nose, but indistinct. Mushroom and earthiness dominates. Concentrated and unfocused on the palate. Bitter on the palate with a very bitter aftertaste. Metallic. Unpleasant finish.

The 2002 showed balsamic, spice, dark fruits, and lacquer on the nose along with hints of tobacco and cedar. Fruitier than the 2001. High acid level. Lack of focus on the palate. Big, dark fruit. red pepper spice. Bitterness and acidity competing on the palate. Severe dryness on palate leading to a furry feel in the mouth.

The 2003 exhibited stewed fruit, spice, and rust. Sweet fruit on the palate. Bitterness, salinity and kerosene.

But Franchetti eventually came to the realization that the problem was with his winemaking technique, rather than with the cultivar and, in 2004, he changed his approach (Camuto):

• 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."

In his communication with me, Andrea said that he gained his initial feel for Nerello in 2004 when the wine came in "nice and tannic." The first applied thinking happened the following year (lightness, clarity, fining with egg whites). "What Nerello wine should be, or is in the heavens, struck me from 2005 on: I first modified the cellar activities, then the harvesting decision; then my vineyard management practices."

And the rest, as they say, is history.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

A visit to Pietradolce Winery (Solicchiata, Mt Etna, Sicily)

“A model small estate making top-level, authentically regional wines from mostly old vines, including several pre-phylloxera parcels. Michele Faro’s grandfather grew grapes and made wine on Etna, and some of the oldest parcels were in family hands, so he got off to a running start in 2005.” Thusly was Pietradolce described in John Szabo’s Volcanic Wines. With this full-throated endorsement of the Pietradolce estate and wines, I was anxious to pay them a visit. Sensing my urgency during our pre-trip communications, Brandon arranged for me to go directly from the airport (after an overnight, intercontinental flight) to the estate in Solicchiata.

After a great “catch-up” ride, we arrived at the Pietradolce (“sweet stone”) estate. The winery building dominates the zone, appearing as an oversized lava terrace overseeing the smaller terraces that fell away before it. We were met in the driveway between the vineyards by Giuseppe Parlavecchio, the vineyard manager, who, after the introductions were made, proposed that we go walk in the vineyard. I agreed. I needed to keep walking to stay awake.

The estate sits on 11 ha that is subdivided into three vineyard plots (two of the plots fall within the Rampante Contrada while the other is in Zottorinoto. The location experiences cool nights, warm days, and a 20-degree day night temperature variance (Such variances are widely held to be beneficial to grape quality.). The area is also subject to steady winds flowing over the Nebrodi Mountains and they serve to keep the vineyard, which faces in that direction, relatively free of vineyard diseases (2015 was a very difficult year in that they experienced higher-than-normal rainfall). 

The soil is comprised of a stony, light sandy loam infused with a bounty of minerals. According to Giuseppe, the soil is very rocky up to depths of 2 - 3 meters over the entirety of the property.

The  vineyard follows the natural lay of the land. Because of the amount of stone that had to be removed during vineyard establishment, they opted for two large terraces, rather than a larger number of smaller terraces. 

The vineyard is farmed organically. Vine training is a mix of albarello (legacy and youngest vines) and espalier. Albarello is cropped shorter here than on other Etna estates. The estate’s position is that albarello affords the best expression of Etna wines in that it forces the roots to dig deep in search of nutrients and water.

The lowest vineyard is laid out between 600 and 800 meters and is simply called Pietradolce. It is planted 4000 vines/ha to Carricante (2.5 ha) and Nerello Mascalese (0.5 ha). The Archineri cru is 2.5 ha in size and is home to 70-year-old Nerello Mascales vines. The Barbagalli vineyard is the highest of the vineyards (900 m) and is populated with 80 - 100-year-old Nerello Mascalese vines.

The estate’s first vintage was the 2007 Archineri — a total of 300 bottles — followed by the Barbagalli in 2010 and the Rosato and Etna Bianco in 2011. The white wine is subjected to a lengthy maceration. The reds are fermented/macerated over 20 days in 500 - 700 hl barrels and then undergo a natural malolactic fermentation. Entry-level wines are aged for 3 months while the more complex wines are aged between 14 and 20 months.

The Pietradolce Etna Rosato 2010 is a Nerello Mascalese wine which saw no maceration. Perfumed cherry nose along with spice and butterscotch. Focused, with great acidity and a lengthy finish. Slight yeastiness attributable to lees with no battonage. Beautiful wine. 9000 - 10,000 bottles per year.

The Etna Rosso 2015 is a 100% Nerello Mascalese which spends 3 months in wood. Cherry, spice, aggressive tannins and searing acidity. Great attack and mid-palate with reticence on the finish. 10,000 - 11,000 bottles.

The Archineri 2014 spent 14 months in wood and 6 months in bottle. Pine notes, dried bramble, tar, and mahagony on the nose. Mint, green herbs, silky tannins on the palate. Balanced. 7000 bottles.

Archineri 2010 showed spice, polished wood, caramel, sweet tobacco, and burnt orange. Cigar and leather on the palate. Lengthy finish.

We did not taste the white on this visit, a gap which I intend to address in the near future. Overall I was pleased with the wines on offer and especially so with the Rosato.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

The wines of Salvo Foti

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.

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.

After our lengthy promenade among the vines, and being subjected to hundreds of Lidia's must-have picture compositions, we made our way down the hill and across the street to the Palmento in Vigna Caselle. We stepped through the small entry door and negotiated a catwalk-type structure to the crushpad where a table and chairs resided conference-room style. And it was here that we were treated to Salvo's wines and the philosophies and practices that I reported on in previous posts.

Salvo Foti and Author (Picture credit Lidia Rizzo)

In this post I report on Salvo's wines. The tasting group was comprised of Salvo, his son Simone, Brandon Tokash, Lidia Rizzo, a female winemaker, and the author. From time to time visitors would pass through to greet Salvo and he would have to take a small break to go acknowledge them.

I Vigneri vineyards around Mt. Etna (Source: Salvo Foti)

We started out with a 2014 Aurora Etna Bianco Superiore, a blend of 90% Carricante and 10% Minella. This wine was made from grapes sourced from the 5-ha, 5-year-old Caselle Vineyard. Slate, salinity, and eye-popping acidity. Salvo mentioned that this bottle had been opened for a week and offered to open a new one for comparison purposes. We did not object. The new bottle exhibited the same characteristics but with greater freshness. 6500 bottles.

The second wine tasted was the 2014 Vinudilice, made with 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.

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.

The coloration on this wine was slight. It yielded subtle red fruit on the nose and a density, coupled with freshness and a mineral complexity, on the palate. This is not your grandfather's Rosato. 2,500 bottles.

In addition to the Rosato, we were also treated to a 2014 Vinudilice Metodo Classico. This sparkling wine was stunning but, unfortunately, it is not made every year. This is without a doubt the best sparkling wine I have tasted on the mountain to date and I have not been so excited about a non-Champagne sparkling wine since I tasted the Xinomavro-based Karanika. Fresh and attention-grabbing. Mouth-filling mousse and great persistence. The world deserves to see more of this wine.

Vigna di Milo 2014 is a 100% Carricante Etna Bianco Superiore sourced from a 0.15-ha vineyard located at 950 m asl and planted to 10,000 vines/ha. The wine is matured for one year in stainless steel and then racked into large wooden barrels for further refinement. This wine was fresh to go along with a salinity and slatey minerality. 2500 bottles.

Vinupetra 2014 is an Etna DOC red wine produced from grapes grown in 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 albarello style and at 10,000 vines/ha. This wine had a perfumed nose with plum and cherry notes accompanying spice and sweet vanilla aromas. Focused, with a lengthy finish. This wine was pleasing. 3500 bottles produced annually.

In addition to the wines shown above, Salvo produces two other wines (not a part of this tasting). The first is a white made from Carricante, Rhine Riesling, Grecanico, and Minella grown in a 0.4-ha plot in the Nave Vineyard (1200 m asl) in the Agro di Bronte district. These bush vines were planted 10,000 vines/ha in 2005. The wine is bottled under the Vinjancu label.

The second wine is the I Vigneri Etna DOC which is produced from Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio grapes given to the cultivators by vineyard owners to make wine for their personal consumption. This wine is fermented in a Palmento and sees no wood during the maturation process. Four thousand bottles of this wine are produced annually.

As an overall observation, each of the wines tasted was of extremely high quality and fully representative of its place. For the Carricante wines, salinity, acidity, and minerality were not in short supply. I remain blown away by the Vindilice Metodo Classico.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Salvo Foti, the pillar of tradition in Mt Etna winegrowing

For most of it lengthy vinous history, the Mt Etna region has utilized the albarello training system as the foundation of its viticultural regime. 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 Foti during a recent conversation, 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 albarello 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 the aforementioned Salvo Foti.  I provide some insight into Mr Foti's philosophy and practices in this post.

In their seminal work on Sicilian wine (The World of Sicilian Wine), Nesto and di Savino describe the subject 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."

Salvo Foti with Lidia Rizzo, Contrada Caselle

According to Nesto and di Savino, Foti's grandparents owned vineyards on the slopes of Etna. Salvo gained a technical degree in enology on the 1980s and began consulting work with a number of producers in Sicily. He continued his studies and eventually received a specialized degree in enology from the University of Catania. 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 was Benanti's enologist until they parted ways in 2011.

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).

Foti's core mission, as described by Nesto and di Savino, is:

• Protection of the land
• Preservation of albarello viticulture
• Cultivation of indigenous vine varieties
• Emphasizing the humanity of the grower
• Conservation of Sicilian culture.

His key viticultural principles are:

• The use of the albarello training system
• Dense vine spacing
• Avoidance of systemic sprays and synthetic soil additives
• Chestnut poles for vine support.

Foti's key principles on display at Aeris Vineyard

In Foti's view (expressed in my conversation with him), albarello 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-albarello 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. 

Foti has been very proactive in disseminating his thoughts and practices:

• I previously mentioned the books and pamphlets
• Salvo has formed an organization called I Vigneri which is comprised of like-minded grape growers and producers operating in Etna and eastern Sicily. In addition to work on their personal properties (if so endowed), members of the organization are available to work the vineyards of clients, all work based on the I Vigneri principles.
• 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.
• 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. But that is not the end of the story. Salvo is also planting a Carricante vineyard for Harvey in California, using I Vigneri practices and personnel.

In our conversation 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.

Foti with his son Simone

Simone, Salvo, Lidia Rizzo, and Brandon Tokash

Salvo Foti and author (Photo credit Lidia Rizzo)

Foti is a quiet and soft-spoken man. At least those were the characteristics that he projected during the course of our meeting. But he also impressed as being extremely knowledgeable, having a strong sense of self, commitment to a set of ideals, and intensity of purpose. Albarello could not have happened upon a stronger proponent.

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