Etna DOC

Etna DOC


Etna: Europe's highest active volcano towers over Sicily as an elemental force. It leaves no one cold, fascinating and frightening at the same time, he draws people since time immemorial in its spell.

It regularly strikes fear into the hearts of the islanders. Lava flows roll down to the valley and earth tremors from its interior cause the island to shake. Etna is both a curse and a blessing. Even the many tourists cannot escape its fascination. And its cooled lava flows form the basis for the dark, rich volcanic soils, rich in minerals, a highly complex mixture of sediments, ash and weathered lava. On them grow wonderful, exciting, refined wines that do credit to the place. This is because the lava soil provides a distinctive minerality in the wine of the Etna DOC appellation, and together with the altitude and the fresh, rougher winds from the sea that provide cooling, invigorating acidity and freshness come into the beautiful, red Etna wines, the Etna Rosso DOC. It is the Nerello Mascalese grape variety that makes its mark in the wine world with Etna wines. The autochthonous variety, similar to Pinot Noir, is said to have the ability to convey the finest nuances of the terroir, thus having the potential to produce very great wines.

"Etna DOC wines are unique in their power and refinement."
Famiglia Vergani

In doing so, Sicilian winemakers fall back on something that has been there and done that way for centuries. For already in the times of the ancient Greeks, the wild vines on the slopes of Etna were cultivated as small trees, also called Alberello education. In almost all wine regions, this rather wild-looking form of cultivation was eliminated, it had yielded too little. At the vineyards in Etna DOC you can still find them, even vines of great age up to 100 years, gnarled and the wood almost as black as the dark lava soils can be seen. As one of the very rare representatives that have survived the great death of the vines by aphids, they are even rootless, an absolute rarity in Europe. The wild, filigree and extremely elegant wines are causing a sensation, and the region is considered boom country. But the seething witch's cauldron of Etna does not make it easy for its winegrowers. Its smoke hangs in the sky like a sword of Damocles, warning people that it can destroy what grows and thrives at its feet at any time. One more reason not to miss this extraordinary wine, we think!