If you ask people dialed into the wine industry what’s the hottest new place to find exciting wines, Sicily’s Mount Etna will get a lot of votes. It isn’t a new area. The appellation got its DOC way back in 1968 and century old vines are not uncommon as are, sadly, terraced vineyards that have been long abandoned. But there are exciting things happening now in terms of quality and the produce of the local varietals, Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio, is finding many fans.
The wines are unique in profile yet seem hauntingly familiar and strangely compelling. The textures are relatively supple and this particular mountain expresses its terroir of varied soilscapes (it is after all an active volcano) as a melange of supple tufo mineralities. We are sold on the region and have found lots of very interesting wines over the last 15 years or so including the wines of Giuseppe Russo with the Girolamo Russo Etna Rosso ‘a Rina 2016 being one of the finest value plays yet in this emerging category.
Giuseppe Russo, a former pianist, took over the family estate in 2005 and is now farming organically. ‘A Rina is their ‘entry cuvee’ made the old fashioned way with natural yeasts, no refrigeration, hand punch downs, and no fining or filtration. It’s pretty ‘natural’ stuff without any of the funk or oxidation that affect so many such wines. It is a round, easy, flavorful beverage with great purity of fruit and soft tannins (seemingly a common thread for Nerellos).
The press seems to agree on this one. James Suckling says, “Cranberries, boysenberries, red licorice, fresh herbs and some tobacco. The pure fruit character comes through more here than the other single-vineyard bottlings this year, while the tannins are softer, more compact and more velvety. Intense and long on the finish. 94 points.”
Similar kudos from Wine Spectator’s Alison Napjus, “Fresh earth and mineral notes provide an aromatic overtone for flavors of ripe cherry and strawberry fruit in this well-knit and chewy, medium-bodied red. Fresh and creamy, with hints of dried fig, anise and herb lingering on the finish…92 points.”
Let your Etna immersion start here, this one, as you would expect, is also very food-friendly. Is Nerello going to be ‘the next big thing’?
Frankly it wouldn’t surprise us, especially as more producers of this quality hit the market.