The eruption of Etna wines – Technologist
In Italian Journey, written in 1786, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe explained how much he was seduced by Sicily: “To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything.” What would the writer, who often stayed in Taormina, near Catania, think about Etna’s vineyards, whose wines have been gaining ground for the last 10 years over many of Italy’s competitors? What if, having long struggled with extreme climatic conditions, this southern wine hotspot had also become a “key” to the northern regions?
The current success of Etna wines seems to confirm this premise. Few regions in the world are eliciting such enthusiasm as Etna. “They have an unsuspected freshness,” said Alessandro Malfitana, head sommelier at the Hotel San Domenico in Taormina, which overlooks the volcano. “They are easy to digest, elegant and authentic. They also have a kind of original archaism and impetuosity that make them so novel. When I suggest an Etna wine to our restaurant guests, they sometimes mistake it for a Burgundy pinot noir. Etna’s reds have a very similar color.”
A native of the village of Linguaglossa, in the Etna vineyards, Malfitana knows what he’s talking about. After earning his sommelier degree and gaining multiple professional experiences in London, he decided to return to his native island to proudly promote its values and flavors.
Numerous other winegrowers elected to make a similar choice. Among them is the Tuscan wine merchant Marc De Grazia, who set up shop here in 2022 with some 50 hectares of vines. He calls the Etna vineyards “the Burgundy of the Mediterranean.” Or like the Piedmontese Angelo Gaja, who couldn’t resist the call of the Sicilian volcano. In 2017, he teamed up with the winemaker Alberto Graci to create a small vineyard.
White flowers, lemon and wild herbs
Majestic, magnetic and releasing every day a more or less dense smoke (proof of an activity Sicilians are now used to), Europe’s highest volcano (3,350 meters) is increasingly attractive. Instead of being feared, each of the volcano’s awakenings is seen as a renewal of the earth, already highly charged with minerals, while the sulfur in the smoke protects the vines from disease.
Despite the occasional seismic tremors, more than 300 winegrowers now share these slopes planted with vines on over 3,000 hectares that have become so sought-after that hardly any are left for sale. And if there are, prices have risen sharply. In 20 years, the cost per hectare increased from €15,000 to €150,000.
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