Terre Nere estate revisited

In an article I wrote a few years ago, I had suggested that if Sicily was to produce great red wine, Etna is where it would and should happen.

While I passionately dislike the macho, loud, mouth-shattering , largely Nero D’Avola-based reds the island is renowned for, I have a lot of admiration for the natural wines grown in this very special place.

Etna’s fabled northwest vineyards have a terroir that is unique both in the Sicilian and Mediterranean context, with exceptional potential to produce wines of great individuality and typicity.

The geological, altitude and climatic conditions give rise to some very special micro-climates which, together with a vast heritage of very old different sorts of Nerello vines, are being understood by an ever-increasing number of wine growers who express this rich ‘patrimony’ with meaningful and inspired wines.

Of course, there are still a lot of winemakers who insist on producing manufactured wines, with an international outlook which at best can be good but indifferent, or at worst, undrinkable and over-extracted.

It is a shame the Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) system in place does not protect and enforce a more typical approach to wine growing and making. Alongside pioneers of the new respect for Etna’s wine-growing attributes such as Benanti and Franck Cornelisson, since 2004 there has been Marco de Grazia, with his now quite famous and sought-after Terre Nere estate.

At around 20 hectares, the vineyard is terraced along varying altitudes, starting at around 600 metres above sea level, with the highest at around 1,000 metres.

Varying soils also enrich the complexity of the landscape and therefore the resultant wines. There is alluvial, varying degrees of lava ashes, and galet type soils.

The vineyard is mainly planted with the indigenous Nerello Mascalese of impressive age groups. Some date back to pre-Phylloxera, which means well over a hundred years, and to top it all, up there are three or four different vine-growing methods, spalliera and albarello being the main ones.

Having visited the estate in 2009 and tasted the 2007 vintage soon after it was bottled, a few days ago I was very much looking forward to re-taste the same wines from the same vintage. There were four wines. All red and all within the Etna Rosso DOC.

We started with Santo Spirito. This is now quite generous and evolved with an elegant and smooth structure. Ripe cherry and sweet spicy flavour.

Calderera Sottana comes from vineyards between 650and 700 metres above sea level. Quite evolved, but much more complex than Santo Spirito, expressing a mineral backbone with a fresh, lively aftertaste.

Feudo di Mezzo comes from more or less the same altitude as Sottana but with a very different flavour structure. This is less mineral and with a more earthy and tannic structure. In 2009 I had noted that Guardiola 2007, coming from much higher altitude vineyards, needs time in bottle. Although it has evolved slightly, this is still very tightly knit, with an acidic and mineral backbone that needs at least five more years in bottle to show off its hidden beauty.

Terre Nere’s wines carry an identity card which clearly states, “Place of birth… Etna – Sicily”. Or maybe even better, just “Etna”, as, in my opinion, there is no other place like Etna on Sicily... or indeed the world.

mike@michaeltabone.com