Mount Etna Trip Report

After a relaxing few weeks lapping up the idyllic beaches of the Greek islands in early September 2017, I was incredibly excited for the Italian leg of our trip, which would see my wife and I visit both Sicily and Piedmont – two wine regions that have increasingly captured my vinous affections.

We started our Sicilian journey in the capital Palermo which we found to be somewhat dilapidated, gritty but at the same time quite beguiling.

We were brave enough to hire a car and tackle the Sicilian traffic heading in a clockwise direction around the island towards the beautiful seaside town of Cefalu. From there, we continued to follow the northern coast of the island before turning inland around Patti and heading towards the scenic medieval town of Montalbano Elicona.

From there we headed on to Passopisciaro town which lies in the shadow of Mount Etna. I was surprised to see how active the volcano remains, with a steady plume of billowing smoke constantly reminding you of the perils above.

Visit 1 - Vini Franchetti

Our first formal appointment of the trip was with the winery I had always known as Passopisciaro, but which locally is known as Vini Franchetti, named after its founder, Andrea Franchetti who hails from the Tuscany region.

They had been somewhat difficult to organise an appointment with – several emails had gone unanswered and my phone call attempts were answered by a receptionist with limited English other than to simply ask me to send them another email!

I didn’t think the visit was going to happen until at last minute the stars aligned and we managed to lock in a time. As we headed down the treacherous mountainside roadway towards the green valley at the foot of the volcano my excitement levels were palpable!

For those unfamiliar with the Vini Franchetti story, they were one of the first of the modern wave of producers to setup on Etna in 2001.
The winery site on Via Guardiola in the Contrada Guardiola cru features 100 year old Nerello vines that had previously been abandoned after the last major volcano eruption came perilously close in the late 1800s - see the red line in the image below where the lava flow stopped.

These vines are grown in an ‘alberello’ or bush vine style on well restored terraces. They also have Petit Verdot and Chardonnay on site grown in more traditional rows.

An interesting back-story about why Franchetti’s Contrada Guardiola is labelled as IGT instead of DOC is that the vineyard is split by a road – one side is DOC and the other side is outside - see the house which straddles the said road.

Additionally, there was quite a bit of consternation amongst all of the Etna producers that the DOC rules exclude vineyards above a certain altitude. Interestingly there seemed to be common agreement that some of Etna’s best vineyards are in fact the highest ones and are thus excluded from the DOC. In an Etna context, the view seemed to be that DOC status was not reflective of the quality of the wine in the bottle. I was not surprised to learn there was quite a bit of political bureaucracy and self-interest protecting the current DOC arrangements.

The visit commenced with a tour of the winemaking facilities before continuing into the vineyards. We finished up with a tasting of 3 wines – the Passobianco, the Passorosso and the Contrada Rampante.

Wine 1 – 2015 Passobianco

• 100% chardonnay grown at around 900m altitude
• Nice acid, with a pleasant minerality and soapy, waxiness to it
• The oak was not prominent – it was mostly large format

Wine 2 – 2015 Passorosso

• 100% Nerello Mascalese
• No Nerello Capuccio – this is generally used for colour
• The colour in this wine reflects the absence of Capuccio – quite light in colour
• Very aromatic – quite peppery on the nose
• On the palate, it featured beautiful tannins and silky red fruits – a controlled opulence

Wine 3 – 2015 Contrada Rampante

• 1,000m altitude
• Slightly darker in colour than the Passorosso
• Powerful nose – pepper and florals
• More retrained and higher acidity
• Needs time – lots of structure
• Light on its feet, but lots of finesse
• Complexity plus
• Bit more savoury

Unfortunately the visit while didn’t quite live up to my lofty expectations or the hefty tasting fee of 25€ per person that incidentally wasn’t waived on purchase of wine.

Overall Rating 3/5

Visit 2 – Frank Cornelissen

Bright and early the next morning I jumped back into the trusty rental car and negotiated the tight and windy roads around our base in Taormina on the way up to Mount Etna for day 2 of visits.

First up I met the affable and knowledgeable Giacomo (public relations and winery visits manager) outside the Passopisciaro church which is located across the road from their discreet looking winery.

It was great timing as the team had been busy picking earlier that morning and the winery was now abuzz with workers feverishly processing the grapes as us tourists gawked and photographed them!

They had just finished processing the rose, which I managed to grab a few snaps of:-

Frank Cornelissen is renowned for his natural, hands-off winemaking practices. This was affirmed by his commitment to using 100% fibreglass ferment vessels as they’re perceived to be more neutral than steel - interestingly, this is the first time I’ve heard steel referred to as non-neutral! There is absolutely zero oak used at all – the explanation given was “we make wines not furniture”!

After the winery visit, we jumped into our cars and followed Giacomo up the volcano to nearby Solicchiata for a visit to Contrada Barbabecchi, the site of their flagship wine, the Magma Rosso.

This site was planted atop of volcanic soil and at 800-900 metres is one of the vineyards considered too ‘high’ for DOC recognition. The vineyard is planted in traditional terrace style unlike the neighbouring vineyard which had literally been cut ‘flat’ into the mountain. The vines age ranged from relatively young all the way through to 100 years old plus.

The vineyards here are certainly prone to the elements – bushfires in summer and up to a metre of snow in winter!

From the vineyard, we then headed to local restaurant Cava Ox which by all accounts has a legendary cult status for its wine collection. We spent a great deal of time tasting through the wines and talking about the winemaking, the vineyard sources, the stories behind the wine names and any number of questions we threw at Giacomo who was all too willing to answer.

Wine 1 – 2016 Susucaru (Rose)

• Blend of nerello mascalese and malvasia
• Slightly cloudy – definitely unfiltered
• The nose was floral and pretty with an underlying pleasant herbiness
• On the palate was a fresh acid zing, red fruits, red apple, bone dry acidity, tomato leaf

Wine 2 – 2016 Contadino

• Means “farmer”
• En primeur release
• Will be released as DOC Etna Rosso
• easy drinking style red
• brilliant dark ruby red colour
• 85% nerello mascalese – field blend for the rest
• On the palate, red cherry fruit, some spice, earthiness, velvet tannins, some grip, beautiful length, savoury

Wine 3 – 2016 Munjabel Rosso

• En primeur release
• 100% nerello mascalese
• more pepper on the nose
• palate – structured, dark red fruits
• bit more opulence and richness
• huge finish - needs time
• lightness to the palate weight

Wine 4 – 2015 Munjabel CS

• Cru wine
• surrounded by lava stone
• nose jumps out of the glass
• serious wine!
• big jump up in quality and complexity
• a lot of power despite the vintage (hail and rain)
• great acidity
• Giacomo thinks the vintage is a bit green, but I’m not so sure!
• There is a tomato leaf savouriness

Wine 5 – 2015 Munjabel VA

• VA – high altitude wine
• 100% mascalese
• dark ruby red
• similar colour to the CS
• more acid and minerality than the CS
• 2 months masceration with skins
• 1.5 years in fibreglass

After what had been a visit of several hours, Giacomo was summonsed back to the winery to help out and was kind enough to leave the remainder of the wines for us to enjoy over a lovely zucchini flower pasta which accompanied the wines beautifully!

All in all, I couldn’t recommend the visit to Cornelissen enough – the visit was engaging, enlightening and educational, not to mention we got to indulge in a range of wines over great food.

If you ever get to Etna, I’d highly recommend the visit!

Overall Rating – 5/5

Visit 3 - Azienda Agricola Crasà SRC

Next up was a much more informal visit to SRC.

I didn’t take any formal notes for this visit as I was the only visitor and spent most of the time talking to winemaker/proprietor Rori Parasiliti and his lovely wife.

If I had to summarise the philosophy behind SRC, I would say it was consistent with the Cornelissen approach - I wasn’t surprised to learn later on that they had originally started as a bit of a joint venture.

I was very thankful to Rori for making the time to see me – they had literally just moved into their brand new winemaking facility which they had built themselves (Rori was a builder before changing careers into winemaking).

They had certainly planned for a lot of future expansion as you can see from the photo below!

We tasted through the entire range of their wines including tank samples (but for the Rivaggio which had just been moved and was too risky to open until it had settled a bit).

I can honestly say I loved each and every one of the wines from the Rosato through to the Etna Rosso and Alberello.

They’ve only been in operation since 2013, but with the backing and support of some big names in Etna including Frank Cornelissen, I really see these guys going places.

I’d strongly recommend getting on board their wines now as they were grossly underpriced on the local market, which I suspect won’t last long as their reputation and standing grows.

I was so enamoured with the wines, that I was determined to bring some home. They hadn’t yet moved across their bottled wines to the new facility, so they took time out of their Saturday to drive me 20 minutes to their nearest village and introduce me to one of their friends who owned an amazing Enoteca where I was able to buy each of the wines at very sharp prices!

Overall Rating 4/5

With a little bit of spare time to before my final visit of the day, I decided to drive as far as possible up Etna and see whether I could reach the highest observation point on the northern slope – the Piano Provenzana.

While time conspired against me, I made it most of the 25km drive up the mountain and managed to get the following quick snaps showing recent lave flow in the area (1980s I believe).

Visit 4 – Planeta

My final Mt Etna experience was at Planeta, the brainchild of Diego Planeta.

Planeta seem to be quite a progressive, modern operation, with a strong online presence and a thoughtful range of hospitality options for potential visitors. This carried through to the professionally run and customer-centric winery appointment which as they put it, focussed on turning visitors into “advocates for the Etna region”. Mission accomplished!

Planeta are very much a Sicilian producer at heart, with a range of sites across the island including Menfi, Vittoria, Noto, Capo Milazzo and of course, Etna. I enquired whether they had any interest in pursuing mainland ventures given the diversity of their portfolio – the answer was a resounding no; Sicily is their focus.

The Etna operation is Planeta’s fourth venture, commencing in 2007. As a relative late-comer to the region, it was interesting to hear their experiences of how Etna as a wine region has seemed to have progressed rapidly in a relative short period of time, with land values soaring (in a relative sense) on the back of the increased interest. This should only continue, with news that Gaja have purchased land in the region as part of a joint venture with another notable Etna producer (Graci if my memory serves me correctly).

An interesting discussion point with Planeta related to the concept of terroir as it relates to Etna and how it is very much driven by the type of volcanic activity in the area – fairly unique for wine producing regions I’d imagine. Specifically, there seems to be a marked difference between effusive eruptions as distinct from explosive eruptions.

My tasting with Planeta was scheduled for dusk, providing for wonderful lighting of the Etna region as the sun set. The tasting occurred in a wonderful, restored farm house, the perfect setting to explore the range of wines over a platter of local Sicilian appetizers bread with Planeta’s extra virgin olive oil, olives, croutons, cherry-tomatoes, and local cheese – a very nice touch indeed.

Fortunately for me, the other scheduled visitors didn’t turn up, so I had the tasting to myself. This allowed for an in depth discussion with my host. Sensing my enthusiasm for the experience and their wines, my gracious host shared a number of other wines that weren’t ordinarily open for tasting – bonus!

Wine 1 – 2016 Etna Bianco DOC

• 100% Carricante
• Early drinking style
• Fermented in 85% steel and 15% oak
• White peach notes with lovely acid

Wine 2 – Eruzione 1614 Carricante

• Named after the famous eruption in 1614 that went for 10 years!
• 90% Carricante and 10% Riesling
• From a site located 900m above sea level
• Fermented entirely in stainless steel
• More citrus notes – maybe I’m imagining it, but the Riesling really stands out
• Longer term proposition with suggested aging of up to 10 years

Wine 3 – 2016 Chardonnay

• Grown on a site in Agrigento in the Menfi region
• Planeta’s flagship wine; a truly unique and interesting concept from a proud Sicilian producer
• Flinty nose but with strong coconut notes throughout – think Malibu!
• 1/3 new oak, but not flabby or round despite the oak influence
• Really interesting take on chardonnay – unlike anything Australian or French I’ve tried before

Wine 4 – 2015 Etna Rosso DOC

• 100% Nerello Mascalese
• Orange rind on the nose
• Bit round for my tastes – lacked the acidity and sharpness of the wines I’d tasted earlier in the day

Wine 5 – 2014 Eurozione 1614

• 100% Nerello Mascalese
• Comes from a rich vintage
• Smells earthy
• So much terroir

Wine 6 – 2015 Mamertino

• 60% Nero d’Avola and 40% Nocera
• Nocera is an almost extinct variety – Planeta have brought it back from the brink
• Unfortunately the oak dominates a bit too much for my tastes

Overall Rating 4/5

wow! what an amazing trip! thank you for sharing! (a tad extra jealous of your experience at Cornelissen!)

Thank you for sharing! Very useful. I’ve been dreaming since years to spend some time in the Etna region visiting wine producers, but didn’t manage yet…

Wonderful narrative and photos! Thanks so much for sharing. (Loved the quote “we make wine, not furniture” !)

Spectacular write up

Wonderful write-up Liam - thanks!

Thank you for the care and effort in assembling a mini tour of a region most of us likely will never visit. Love the lava looks!

Thanks for posting this! Riesling on Etna?!! Who knew? Looks like you had a great trip!

Awesome, thank you!

Thanks for the feedback everyone! It was a great experience and an amazing wine region to visit.

Stay posted for my Piedmont report!

Thanks for the reports. We were at Passopisciaro 3 years ago with a similar experience, way overpriced for a simple visit! The wines are good however.

Thank you. Very nice report, and the first mention of Crasa (SRC) that I’ve seen. Were there no places to stay up on the mountain or did you stay seaside in town by choice? Like to do this trip one day myself.

Hi Markus, we were based in Taormina which is approximately 1hr drive. There were plenty of quaint villages closer to the wineries, but my wife had her heart set on a beachside location. You really can’t lose either way!

Among the very best things I’ve ever read on this site. I’m looking forward to rereading it more closely another time.

Thank you for the notes! Mount Etna is on our very short list for our next wine trip. Cheers!