The Wonders of Mt Etna: Climbing Hephaestus' Forge
Class transcript:
Okay. Welcome one and all. Thank you all so much for joining us. Pleasure to have you all with us. Happy Sunday to you all. We are joined today not only by the one, the only Sarah Thompson, of course, but also by some guests from La Montaña, Mount Etna, Mongileo. We have Antonio Abananti and Alice Bonaparte joining us. Hi. And so it's a really very special, very special lesson and we are really excited to share these wines with you, and I'm excited to, you know, kind of give up the microphone and give them a chance to talk about this amazing landscape and these, you know, soulful wines that are really steeped in, you know, thousands of years worth of history.
At any rate, just to give you all a sense of what we're drinking, how to provision, we have a rainbow of wines with us today. Etna has many gifts, white and red, for the sake of fine wine to offer. We were selling four through the restaurant, particularly for this lesson, although at any given time we have all sorts of wines in the mix at both Tail Up Goat and, you know, we're going to at Revelers Hour because these are wines we love and they are wines that deserve a much bigger audience and they, you know, are truly on par with any of, you know, the great growing regions in the world. You know, people talk about, you know, Barolo and Brunello in the context of, you know, the great Italian winemaking regions, but, you know, Mount Etna, certainly belongs in that conversation.
So I have a white and an Etna Rosato, which is a fascinating wine, a bit of a peasant's wine, one of my favorite wines in the world. Here, the white is from Aliche's Vineyard, the Rosato is from Massimiliano Calabretta. We have Antonio Benanti's Etna Rosso behind it, and then Mario Paoluzzi, his Etnius, hopefully he's able to to join us as well. Thompson, if you see him in the mix, notify me. Mario is the only one that is operating on Sicilian time, which is pretty, pretty remarkable. At any rate, we're thrilled to have you here. So without further ado, we're going to get to the matter at hand. So today we're celebrating the power of wine to transport, not only through the glass, you know, through the added element of travel and learning.
So we are joined from our studio in Adams Morgan, 1757 Columbia Road, northwest Washington DC, by Aliche Bonacorsi in Mount Etna. Aliche, do you want to say hi to everyone? Hi! Hi! Yeah, and Antonio Benanti with a map of Mount Etna behind him. Hello! Great, and as always, from less further afield, Sarah Thompson. Brilliant, and we might have another guest in the mix as well, should be very exciting. So we always start off with a bit of a verse. I would be remiss if I didn't do a bit of shameless self-promotion, as always, just a teaser next week, if you're buying food from us at either restaurant. Lamb ribs, that's all I'm going to say. Lamb ribs, exclamation point. They're making a comeback. We do have additional merchandise to show off.
There's additional Wine School merchandise. This is a t-shirt. Oh no, this is not the screen that I was hoping that you would all see. There we go, that's an Excellent Question t-shirt, Tail Up Goat Wine School. Those are live through our website for you all to purchase, if you so desire. So stock up while you can. For the sake of verse, we're gonna kick it old school, and this is Virgil, the famous Roman poet, and this is from the Aeneid Book Three. I am not going to share a screen on the text itself. Let's share a screen on a glimpse of the mountain itself, because Mount Etna is an extremely beautiful place, and you kind of have to see it to fully, you know, appreciate its glory. So again, this is Virgil.
The port is large and sheltered from the winds, but Etna near, with frightful desolation roars at times, sending a burst of black clouds into the air, with rolling smoke of pitch and flashing sparks, and globes of flame that lick the very stars. Then from the bow of the mountain torn, huge stones are hurled, and melted rocks heap up, a roaring flood of fire. 'Tis said that here insolation, half-blasted by the bolts of heaven, was thrust beneath the mountainous mass, and mighty Etna piled above sends forth his fiery breathing from the broken flues, and every time he turns his weary sides, all Sicily groans and trembles, and the sky is wreathed in smoke. That is Mount Etna, and you know, in as much as, you know, is a beautiful place that makes beautiful wines, it has this kind of, you know, psychological hole over the landscape, over the southern Mediterranean, over, you know, anywhere, you know, kind of, in its shadow, and it is, you know, steeped in poetry, you know, poets have been celebrating Etna since antiquity through the modern era. The name of the mountain itself comes from the Greek 'Iburn'. In the Sicilian dialect they say '. In Arabic they say Jabal al-Nahr, which is the mountain, fire, and it is formed as part of a subduction zone, so you basically have a collision of worlds, which feels fitting. So you have the African tectonic plate sliding north and east into the Eurasian plate, and Etna sits at the kind of intersection of those continental plates, and it's kind of funny, you know, I feel like every time the subject of making wine on Etna, you know, comes up, people ask, you know, how could you live there, you know, how could you make wine there, having been there, I think, you know, and I'll let Aliche and Antonio speak to this themselves, but people see the blessings of living there, you know, the mountain gives as much as it threatens, and then on top of that, in as much as there are regular eruptions and, you know, Regular earthquakes as well, you know, there's a lot of things that are going to happen, and I think that's it's like riding the subway, you get used to it, you know, and I think, you know, even with the little tremors, it's something that becomes a part of your life, and, you know, unless it's, you know, out of scale, unless it's a one-thousand-century eruption or earthquake, you know, it becomes a part of your life, and people learn to adapt, which, you know, is worth celebrating in another time.
Mount Etna climbs well over 10,000 feet. Through the 19th century, actually, one of the biggest exports from Etna was ice. That sounds really weird to say. You know, to get ice from a volcano, but it is that tall, and you know, in the winter, you know, it will snow. There are ski resorts on the top of the mountain, you know, so it is, as you go up, a very cool place, and above about 1,500 feet, too cold to reliably ripen grapes. They have been making wine on Mount Etna, you know, since before recorded history, at the very least. Traditionally, they would do so in a site called a pisto. So, pisto would just be a, essentially, a massive stone, and they would dig that out and then give space for, after you stomped the fruit, the juice to run off into another vessel, and you can see an outdoor, this is an outdoor, what we call pimento, or pisto, on the mountainside, and on the mountainside of Etna is littered with hundreds.
hundreds of these, so the notion of making wine on Etna is not novel or new in the least, it is 6,000 years old, the oldest evidence. Sicily, throughout its history, has been traded between, you know, empires and civilizations, it has passed from the Greeks to the Romans to the Franks to the Vandals to the Byzantines to the Arabs to, you know, the Normans, it's been fought over by various Spanish and French empires, all the while it has made wine. In terms of a modern wine infrastructure as an exportable product, the Romans began that, but it really started in Etna for the sake of a heartier red wine. In the 19th century, 18th and 19th century, after Phylloxera hit the vineyards of Europe, Sicily became an alternative for the sake of sturdy red wine, and red wine in Sicily became a very popular import throughout Europe, and it was used to add book, to add ballast, to add body and weight to wines elsewhere in Europe, and you know there's still a lot of unscrupulous producers in northern Italy who say they're making northern Italian wine, but are actually making Sicilian wine, you know, that still happens to this day. Marsala, you know, throughout, that time was the most kind of widely known Sicilian wine, but I think, you know, locally the wines of Etna have really held sway over the local imagination and been, you know, you know, kind of the noble wines of the island, and Etna in the modern era was the first DOC, it was the, on the island of Sicily, it was the first protected designation of origin established in the 60s.
One of my favorite quotes before I pass it off, then, and we actually taste the wines here about Sicily comes from Marco de Bartoli. Marco de Bartoli is this pioneering producer of Marsala in the modern era. He's, you know, highly opinionated, very Sicilian, but he said that Sicily didn't change from the Arab invasion in the 9th century until after World War II. He doesn't mean that literally, but what he means is that, you know, Sicily, you know, is a culture that was very, very agrarian and locally rooted, and I think, you know, in terms of the products that they were making, people weren't, you know, concerned as much with, you know, innovating, but that changed after World War II, and that changed on Etna beginning in the 80s and 90s for the sake of their wines as a younger generation, as embodied by Alice and Antonio, and Antonio's father, you know, really started, uh, to want to make wines that, you know, could, um, be sold on the international market, and that didn't correspond to, um, the traditional, uh, image of wine on Etna, which tended to be, you know, more kind of oxidized wines, uh, for local, uh, consumption. So, um, without further ado, um, Mario is on the call now. Oh, excellent, excellent. Uh, welcome. Ciao, Mario. Um, uh, I have to bring him into the mix. Um, wonderful. Uh, so, uh, we have, uh, three of the, um, best known, um, and, uh, finest winemakers, um, uh, on, uh, Etna today. Um, ciao, Mario. Ciao. Thank you so much for joining us. You joining, oh. My pleasure. No, excellent. And Mario, so you're, are you in your Palmento?
Yes, I'm in, uh, yeah, I'm in my Palmento, yeah. Okay, so great. So, um, now the Palmentos is, Palmento is the word for the traditional, uh, winemaking, facility throughout Sicily. Um, and you can see, I had a picture of one lined up, but I don't need to use that picture anymore because, um, uh, Mario got the memo and is showing it off, uh, in real time. Thank you so much. So, um, Mario. This isn't the working Palmento, but we will do one in the next, uh, couple of years. Oh, excellent, excellent. Um, so, uh, for the sake of, uh, you know, our guests and you, we're going to taste through the wines. We have, uh, four wines here, including, um, your old vine, and, uh, we're just going to let you all speak to this.
So, uh, let's get started. So, uh, let's get started. So, uh, we don't have Massimiliano in the mix. Um, so I'll talk about his Etna Rosato having visited, but, um, I've, I've talked enough here. Um, and I want to give it over to, uh, Alice Bonacorsi. She's going to talk about her Etna Bianco, which is based on the great Caracante. So, uh, Alice, for, for everyone's sake, um, how did your family get involved with winemaking on Mount Etna? Sorry, but I had, oh, no worries. That's okay. So I'll, no, no, I, What are you, Alicia? We have technical, we have some technical difficulties. It's okay. Um, One moment. No, no worries. You, you work that out. I'll tell, I'll tell the folks about, um, you know, uh, Etna white wines.
So Etna white wines come from a bunch of native grapes, but the most important two are Caracante and Caterato. So Caracante, um, is a native grape that comes from One moment. Oh, no worries. One moment, because I, I don't see, and you, nothing. I try again, try again. It’s very exciting. That is, uh, that is none. The other than Robert Kennedy, uh, the importer of these wines in the mix, uh, on his fabulous, uh, green headset. Um, that's going to be trending, uh, on the, uh, wine school Instagram very shortly, Robert nicely done. I don’t know if you own them, but you used to buy them. While Alicia works out of technical difficulties, Caracante, the grape name, comes from the Italian word carica, which means load, because it's a grape that can be very overproductive.
So if you work with it in the valley, it's a grape that, you know, can make a lot of wine, which is not a good thing, you know, if you want to make wine at scale. But for the sake of making, you know, fine wine, typically it's a bad thing. Caracante is a grape that has very high acid. And, you know, for me, now that we have you back, Alicia. Okay. Perfect, perfect. I am here, yeah. I am here. Okay. Excellent. How about my wine? Okay, sorry. I was talking about Caracante. Yes, yes. I don't see, but I understand. I don't hear, excellent. I want to say something about Mount Etna. Because, as you said, Mount Etna is the highest activity.
It's the highest volcano in Europe, but for us, it's not just this, because for us, Etna is like a good, a very good mother, because with the fog and ash that you showed before, for us, it's a very important fertilization of the soil. So it's not only a place for us, Etna, but it's a place for us. It's an amazing place that gives us a lot of very important, very important things to make a very good wine. About Etna Bianco, since 20 years ago, Etna was well known for the red wine. But white grapes were just used to improve the red wine, yes. And only from 20 years ago, one of the first was the Pietra Marina, the Bianco of our friend Antonio, was one of the first Etna Bianco.
Because Etna, in Etna, we produce, the people produce. In the past, only red grape. And the white was planted only in the place where the red doesn't ripe very well. I'm going to show a map of Mount Etna. Will you give people a sense of where this vineyard site is and where your winery is? Yes. You show the map? Yep. Here we go. Okay. Okay. My winery is in, is about this, Passo Pisciaro. Oh, yeah. So Passo Pisciaro is right just north of Castiglione di Sicilia. Sicilia. And then where is the vineyard for this particular Caracante? The, where is the vineyard? For the Caracante? Yeah, yeah. For this wine, the Valcerasa. Valcerasa. Valcerasa. Valcerasa. Made from a vineyard of 100% Caracante. And the grape, we make the harvest at the end of October.
So when the grape is very, very ripe. And we decided that the moment of the harvest, when the seed inside the grape, are sweet, are like an almond. When you taste the seed and the seed is like a roasted almond, the time is right, the grape is ready. So always the harvest is at the end of October, sometimes after the red grape. And even that. We practice. We produce this wine with the particular way, because we crush the grape, we put the grape in the press and the grape stays intense at the 20 degrees. So it's very low temperature. And then after the fermentation, we left the wine for two years, surely. And we make Batonnage every 15 days. And then every month, and for two years, the wine stays surely.
And for the vintage 2015 to 16, is the vintage we have this evening, it was a very interesting vintage, because it's good rain, enough rain, and good temperature during the summer. So the. The. The grape is a very. Is ripe. It's very good ripe. And we. Our. Philosophy is to. To put in the bottle. The. The vintage. Not the best vintage, but the vintage has we found. Because. We. Our philosophy is to produce good wine. Good grape. And then. In the winery, we follow the grape. So we produce a different wine have here. Because we want to. To produce the wine that. That. Show the. The vintage has. The vintage was. Not. We don't. Have any. Chemical products because. We have a very small. Winery and. We. Have used to produce.
In natural way. So we have. In the vineyard. We don't use any pesticide. We have certified. Certification of ICA. And. In the winery. We don't use any chemical products. But we. We. We follow the grape. And we use. Only physical. We don't use chemical. But we have to use physical. So we use temperature. And oxygen. In the vinification. So. So. What do you look for. When you're tasting this wine. What do you like about. You know this particular expression. Of Caricante. When. When. What do you. What do you like about. This particular expression. Of Caricante. When I taste. This vintage. I understand that. Caricante is a very. Interesting grape. Because of a very high acidity. When. The first time that my consultant. Came in the winery. About around. 15 years ago.
She tried. The Caricante juice. And he. Said. This exact word. She said. What we're making. Lemonade. Because. The Caricante. The juice of Caricante. Is very high acidity. So. When you taste. During the fermentation. It's very strong. It's very not. It's very high acidity. And you don't understand. What you can do in the future. But, this acidity is. The most part of this acidity. Is malic acid. So, after the malolactic fermentation, the wine. Is very round. When I taste this wine, I feel. The smell. Of white flower. Like, Sambuco. Or the flower. I said always. I feel. The smell. Of Nespolo flower. But I don't know in English. How you say Nespolo? Antonio can you help me? Nespolo. You know? I think it's just Nespolo. We just have to let it exist.
Let me look it up online. Okay. Thank you. I always get. I find often there's like an almond blossom. Kind of like an almond. There can be kind of an almond quality. To these wines as well. The almond. You feel the almond taste? No. The Nespolo is. Because Nespolo is a plant. Is a plant that make flower. In November. So when all the plants. Are without any leaves. Nespolo have the flower. So is. The Nespolo have not. Any. Mix with other. Flower. You feel only this in November. So guys. Apparently it's called Medlar. Medlar. I like it. I like it better in Italian. I think it sounds better in Italian. And Alice. What do you like to eat? What kind of things you like to eat with Bianco? I like. Eat.
A lot of things. Because. Because the good acidity is good for cheese, but you can eat also some kind of pasta with vegetables or some different kind of meat, but not very fat meat, but if you eat some, some kind of meat, not pork, but some like chicken or something, kind of meat. Is this the flower? Or is this a different flower? Wow, this is a wildflower, wildflower, but that's not the Nespolo, it's different, no, no, no, Nespolo is a orange fruit, okay, it's an orange fruit, very juicy, and I will show you next time, Nespolo, okay, understood. That was a beautiful picture of one of your vineyards, at any rate, okay, yeah. Thank you so much, Alicia. So I'm going to move on to the Etna Rosado now.
And we don't have this. This is wine from Massimiliano Calabretta. And I will show off Massimiliano; he is a total character. But before we do that, I think you know. I want to introduce the red grapes of Etna. The noble red grapes. So we talked about Caracante. Caterato is the most widely grown grape in Sicily. And Caterato goes into Marsala historically. And it can make you know. Kind of fun wines. But you know, on the red side, the most important red grape is Norella Mascalesi. And Norella refers to the color; Mascalesi comes from Mascala. Which is a corner of Sicily. They have discovered. That Norella Mascalesi is actually. The offspring of two grapes. One of which most of you will know. Sangiovese. Is one of the parents of Norella Mascalesi.
The other parent is Antonica Bianco. Antonica Bianco is from Calabria, across Italy, the Strait of Messina. So it's actually thought that the grape might have originated in Calabria and then come over to Mount Etna. But it is indisputably the Etna red grape. I think it is significant though to understand that it hasn't been made in the style that most of us are familiar with until relatively recently. So you know. You look at the facility. That is lurking behind Mario there. And they would not have been making specifically a red wine like this. They would have been making a wine. That looked more like this. This is a traditional peasant wine. On Etna. And the style is called Pisto e Muta. And that means press and separate.
And that's because you know, you're living in a world without refrigeration. Fermentation happens in a place like Sicily. Very fast. And if you leave a wine on the skins for the two weeks required to make something as red as either of these wines, they would have given the wine 24 to 48 hours on the skins. And then run it off. And made something with this color. And they would also call it on Etna. I understand in Sicily. They would say like wine. Red wine to go with fish. And it's this beautiful chameleon. Kind of wine. And I really adore that. About it. So Massimiliano Calabretta. Comes from a wine making family. He made wine with his father Massimo. This is Massimiliano. He is a professor of engineering, in addition to a wine maker.
So he spends part of his year in the north, wearing a suit and tie. And then he spends part of his year on Etna, making very soulful wines. And he and his father started. Bottling their wines in 1997. Prior to that, they did what most Sicilian producers did. Which is just invite people out to the winery. You know, fill your jug. People drive out from Catania. You know they want wine. They get wine. And they go home. But they wanted to do something more noble. More sophisticated. And they have been making wine. Largely from old vines. And consolidating their holdings. Ever since. I visited Massimiliano. His winery is insane. It is outside of Randazzo. In two adjoining kind of garages. And it's a bit of a labyrinth. He has all of these rickety ladders.
Climbing from one tank to the next. And you know he invited me up. And my wife wanted nothing to do with it. And passed me a glass. And you know he knows where everything is. You know because that's kind of the way his mind works. No one knows where anything is in the winery. But he makes these really beautiful, soulful kinds of wines. And it was the first time that I had a wine like this. And what I love about this style is that it's impossible to pigeonhole. It's impossible to easily typify. You know it's not what we most. What most of us think of as Rosé or Rosato. It's not Rosso either. You know it's something else entirely. And it has this real historical significance. You know, kind of imprint in Etna.
And this historical importance in Etna. It's not the only kind of Rosé. That people are making on Etna. You have people like Alberto Grazzi. That are now making Rosés. That are more in the Provençal kind of style. But you know, I think this is. This is one of the most special wines. That Etna has. Because it is based in history. And it is you know so wonderful. It's a wine that ages really beautifully. As well, and can go with anything. So I invite you all who have never had it before. To hit us up on the comments. You know. It is a chameleon. And it is an alien wine. In the best possible sense. And the last thing I wanted to introduce, because it will figure heavily in our conversation, for the sake of the gentleman we're about to talk to.
This notion of the way that vines are traditionally trained on Etna. So typically Norella Mascalesi is trained in this form called Albareo, which means little tree. In Albareo, traditionally there would be a chestnut pole driven into the earth and the vines would be encouraged to train vertically. But there would be no wires, there would be no espalier. You know these are vines that are placed very close together; they're not trained in rows, although very often they would plow. And they start to look like old olive trees. As they grow. And they're poetic and beautiful. That's something that Mario celebrates on his labels. You can see on the label, these older vines. That have this beautiful kind of personality. One to the next. And I can remember traveling vineyards with Mario's vineyard manager in particular.
And in these older vineyards, he had his favorite vine. So he's very excited to show off his one vine in particular that he had named, that was his personal favorite. And they do have this amazing personality and you know kind of like all their own. At any rate, without further ado. Let us move on to Eneroso. And that leaves us. Of course, with the one. The only. Antonio Venanti. Antonio, your family figured hugely in the modern revival of wine on Etna. Will you tell us a little bit about the estate? I'm sorry, I missed the last word you said. Just tell us about your family and their history on Etna, because you are very unique in having made wine there for a long time.
Your father was a seminal figure in the 1980s and 1990s revival of wine on Etna, and then you and your brother now are pushing everything forward still. Sure. Thanks, Bill, for giving this nice stage and visibility to Etna. Thank you on behalf of all of us. It's always. We are always proud to see our wines. Being appreciated. So far away from home. So thank you for that. I think you are right. Thank you for crediting my father. Giuseppe. For what he has done. When we started to make wine professionally. It was 1980. Which is 32 years ago. Like. Like Massimiliano Calabretta's family. My family was also. Growing vines. Like many others. Even in the 1800s. But I don't want to claim that we are. A 200 year old winery.
We are a 32 year old winery. Which on Etna. Is quite an age. There were maybe. Three or four. Proper wineries. At that time. And now it's about 150. So Etna has really moved forward. In the meantime. Antonio, how many of those 150. How many are owned by Sicilians. Versus people from other parts of Italy. Or people from other parts of the world. I would say, that about two thirds. Or even more than that. Maybe 75%. Are actually owned by locals. Yeah. Mario, for example. Is a local by now. Originally from Rome. It's funny. When I moved back to Italy. After 15 years abroad. In the early 2000s. I became friends with Mario. And so. He's been on the island now. For 20 years. He's a local. So, we are all friends.
Alice, Mario. I'm very happy to be in the same. Zoom conference as friends. Going back to what my father did. Yes, my father is actually a pharmacist. But he has always collected wine. And he has traveled for wine. To taste wines. And wine regions. And when he was 43. Because his father had basically stopped. Really looking after vineyards. Because he had started another business. My father decided to. Basically. Take it a step forward. And his idea was to. Really set a very high standard. On Etna. At a time when these varieties. Were not so well known. And Etna itself. Even the locals did not know. Nerello Mascalese or Caricante that well. So it was really green field activity. And my father decided, to aim very high.
One of the things we focused on, since the very beginning, was to have a presence, on more than one site, in the volcano. I can, pull up a map again, if you want to, talk over some of the individual sites. I have another map, so. We believe, so. We started in the north of Etna, in an area called Rovitello. And then immediately, this was 1988. And then our first wine is called Rovitello. And we started in the northern slope. But in the very same year, we also released a wine from Milo, which is on the eastern slope, facing the sea. And in the early, in the mid 1990s, we started to release wines. From the southwest of Etna. In an area called Santa Maria di Licodia. And then 20 years ago, in 1998.
We were able to reunite. The actual family site. In Via Grande on the southeast. We actually started with two wines: An Etna Bianco Superiore and an Etna Rosso. Now we make 15 wines. One five, a few Bianco, then one Rosato, or Rose. Some Contrada specific reds and some Vineyard specific reds as well. Robert Kennedy carries. And so, in 2012, my twin brothers Salvino and myself took over the total management of the winery. And we have basically leveraged what my father had done for many years. Now the photographer. Wanted us to look like Nerello Mascalese.
That's my father. The guy with the gray or white hair. I'm in the middle. And my brother is next to me. This is Robitello on the northern slope. So, that's not a bad office. No, it's not bad. So 2012. The second generation took over. My father is obviously still there, providing inspiration. And we have. We have kept. A number of the wines. He started to make. Like Robitello. Pietramarina. Nerello Cappuccio. And so forth. And then we have added a few ones. Which are not here today. What we are tasting today. Is our Etna Rosso 2016. Which is actually. A blend of vineyards. So. This is a wine that is meant to represent the winery as a whole, the vineyards. For this wine, are located on three different slopes.
So there are some of the grapes from Santa Maria di Licodia, in the southwest, at about 3,000 feet. And then Monteserra, southeast, at about 1,500 feet. And Robitello, in the north of Etna, at about 24,000 feet. So, we needed one wine that would represent the whole winery. Etna Rosso, that's why it does not bear the name of a specific place, like other wines do. It's just Etna Rosso. Will you speak to I think. It's such a big thing. Etna is a huge volcano, but it's a relatively small corner of the world. How do the Red wines from the north side of the volcano differ from the east? Differ from the south. So, First Bill. One thing about how Etna is that the Etna DOC production is broken down like Alice was saying.
Not that long ago, most of the wines from the volcano were red wines. I remember when I was discussing Etna even just seven or eight years ago. We were always talking about 80%, 85% of the wines from Etna being Etna Rosso. And the vineyard surface being Nerello Mascalese. A very interesting trend that we have been experiencing in the last five or six years is the growth of all the other sub-appellations. So today, Etna Rosso accounts for about 60% of the Etna production. These are official data from the 2019 Consortium Etna DOC. And Bianco. Etna Bianco now accounts for 28-29%. And the balance is actually growing shares of Rosato. And Spumante. And then you have tiny, tiny percentages below 1% of Bianco Superiore. And Rosso Riserva.
So Etna is becoming a region where will of course be driven by red wines. But the other, the other sub-appellation, Bianco, Rosato, Spumante. Have become very important. And it's I think one of the things that makes Etna different compared to other wine regions. Where clearly. They have one specific inclination. Regions known for being outstanding for whites. Others known for being outstanding for reds. Others that specialize in rosé or sparkling wine. But Etna is very versatile. Not only the wine from Etna, but the region of Etna itself can really give rise to amazing wines in all these different categories. And Nerello Mascalese going back to your question, Nerello Mascalese is the most widely planted grape. So assuming that the vinification is the same, so assuming it's the same.
The same wine on north and southern slope, normally on the northern slope. You find a lot of elegance, and finesse, and floral notes, and high acidity, very precise wines. On the southern slope. Again, assuming. We are vinifying them in the same way. And so forth. You will find wines that are. Maybe redder. Slightly higher in alcohol. And a little bit fuller. Reflecting a slightly warmer climate. But always within. The frame of very elegant wines. So I think you were right. Mentioning. Nebbiolo and so forth. Nerello Mascalese. In my very humble opinion. Is one of the greatest. Red grapes in the whole world. And Carricante. Is one of the greatest. White grapes. This wine. Etna Rosso. Before we went online, we were discussing formally. You are right.
This is one of the wines that we have changed a bit since we took over. When my father started in 1988, this was fully oaked. There was never a taste of oak, there was never any trace of oak on the palate. But this was a wine that was going through several months in oak. Whereas now, it's mostly a stainless steel wine with some oak for the Nerello Mascalese. Whereas the Nerello Capuccio component is fully stainless steel. What might be interesting, Bill, is to maybe explain what Nerello Mascalese brings and what Nerello Capuccio brings. If you think that is interesting. I can discuss that. Go for it. Okay. Because you mentioned Capuccio. Etna Rosso. Can either be 100% Nerello Mascalese. Or it can be a blend. When it's a blend, it must be a blend of.
Nerello Mascalese. At least 80%. The balance. The remainder being Nerello Capuccio. Now Capuccio. Is much less frequent. There is maybe 1% of the Etna vineyards. It's less frequent. It's pale. It's still pale. But it's less pale. With some violet nuances. The nose is much more herbaceous. And spicy and smoky. And the palate is much less tannic. Nerello Mascalese. Very pale. More driven by red fruit. Highly acidic. More tannic, so when they are together, In our opinion. They really help one another. Especially in young Etna Rosso. For wines that are meant to age much longer. We either go for the full 100%. Nerello Mascalese. Or from the co-planted vineyards. Like Rovitello. Serra della Contessa. There are tiny, tiny fractions. That is an amazing segue. Because it brings us to. Mario's wine here.
So Mario, you patiently waited. In your underground, palmetto lair. While we have been discussing these other wines. And I want you to speak to the Etna's. Because this is a 2011. It's a very special wine. What is the. So I know it's a broad range of ages, for the sake of these individual vines. But some of these vines are 150 years old, almost. Yes, yes. I am now in the vineyard of the Etna's, because I am here in Moganazzi, where there is most of our vineyards are here. But specifically, the very first vineyard where I started in 2007, in Custodi, was specific. This vineyard, which is almost 2 hectares, about 100 years old. And that means, in an alberello vineyard, that not all the wines are 100 years old. But that means that, like the oldest ones, are 100 years old. And then, an alberello vineyard, bush wine vineyard. You never replace it in once. You just replace. A single vine. If it dies.
Up to 100 years. And then we have like. A little bit younger. And younger and younger. And then we have like. The wines we replaced in the last 10 years. So each vineyard. Is a kind of. Is a kind of village. Is a village. Of people. In this case. Specifically the Etna's. It's specific. Only. Nerello Maschelese and Nerello Cappuccio. So it's only two families. Not more. But sometimes in the very very old. In the very very old vineyards. You have also. Some very few wines of. Other varieties. That were planted in the. In the 19th century. So over 150, 200 years old, years ago. And are these vines grafted? Are they ungrafted? What's the percentage? The newest one is ungrafted. The newest one. We replace it. We replace grafted. Because. Because.
When the soil. It's. It's straight. So when you replace a vineyard. It could be a certain percentage of. Yeah. Because the soil is too tight. To plant ungrafted. But some of our vineyards. We planted. From scrap. So we planted new. Some of these vineyards. We planted partly ungrafted. Because. Because in this case. When we have the chance. To move around. All the. All the vineyards. All the land. And make it very very soft. In this case. We can plant as well ungrafted. Now you and Antonio. In addition to being on the same mountain. You share some common influences. For the sake of. Having both worked with Salvo Foti. Who is a pioneering. Sicilian viticulturist. This is Salvo. Who is one of the amazing. You know kind of. Real champions of native grapes. In Sicily. And. You know. Is worked. To promote. You know the. Native grapes. And the older vineyards. And plots and stuff. But you also share that. So you make a wine called. Pistus. That's made largely in stainless. And really like pure. Whereas you know. This is from older vines. How do you make this kind of differently than you know?
PISTUS is coming mostly from younger vineyards. And PISTUS is only stainless steel for the ECNEUS. Actually ECNEUS is these specific vineyards. All our wines they are coming from single vineyards. They don't have the denomination of the Contrada. But they will have it very soon, so like the Pistus. And the Rosato 19, they already have The Contrada under. All our wines from some of them from 18 vintage. But all the other wines from 19 vintage, they will all have The Contrada. Because like the Pistus what you have on the label of the Pistus. Actually is this house. Where I am now, and so the difference. The main difference is of course. The age of the vineyard. Because Pistus is young vines. And Ecneus is up to 100 years old wine.
And also, the vinification. Because Pistus is only stainless steel. In Ecneus, we do longer, slower vinification in steel and then we do a little bit stronger extraction. And so we do at least a couple of years, sometimes three years, of aging in the wood. Because Nerello Mascalese is very rich in tannins; it's very elegant, but in the same time, it's a pretty tannic variety. So, when you extract properly, you might have the need for some wood. To make it breathe. And to make it softer. So the wood, I believe, for some wines. For long aging wines, especially. It's very important. Not really to give, but more to take out. So to make it, to make the wine breathe, and get it like nicer, smoother, softer. I'm going to set up a couple questions.
And then Sarah and Thomas will give you a chance to weigh in. But so, for the sake of everyone playing along here, Mario mentioned Contrade. Contrade are the kind of like smaller village neighborhoods. And they are. They don't necessarily... In French, they would say like 'ludie.' But Ludie is almost like an individual vineyard. Contrade is a little bigger than that, it's a little bigger. Yeah. Yeah. And what's really fun about Aetna. As you can imagine. Aetna is a very ancient in human terms. Ancient wine making culture. In geologic terms. It's a baby, it's a few hundred thousand years old. And you can imagine with all of these lava flows. And given the different rates of cooling on the lava. And different component parts. You have a lot of diversity of soil types.
In a small area. And that's what the Contrade is all about. And that really is the next kind of, you know, evolution in Aetna wine. Is exploring, you know, those different sites. And what makes them expressive and special, as Antonio said, as Antonio said. Aetna is really a very very great route because it's one of the very few places in the world where you can have white wines, white grape wines, and red grape wines because you can play with a lot of variables. You can play with the soil, of course, with all the different lava. But especially I think that the most important are two other different things. The first one is the positioning, so Antonio talked about, and also Alice about South, Southwest, East, and North.
These are the three main important slopes of the Aetna. And east. Has a very, very different weather. It's mostly, so it's much wetter there. Yeah. So just to give you all a sense, and see the map one more time here. On the east side of Aetna, it gets much more rain. Exactly. If you see the map, is where Aetna is touched by the sea. So imagine. Imagine like. Yeah. 10,000 foot mountain. Right on the sea. And with most of the winds blowing from southeast. So you just have like. This humid air coming from. Southeast here. Where you see from your right. And getting like. 10,000 foot mountain. Yeah. And so that is typically. So typically it's more of a zone for white grapes in Caracante. Yes, exactly.
In and around this particular village, Milo, is a very famous set of vineyards for Caracante in particular. And that's where the Aetna Bianca Superiori. DOCG has been established. Yes. And then there are other elements too. Because a lot of times when the mountain erupts, and starts to spew ash. And east. So this zone south and east of the mountain is also can be very fertile. And much more fertile than other parts of the mountain. In addition to the southern exposition. So you know there are all these subtle variables affecting you know the. Another very important. Very another very important. Variable is the altitude. Because you have different weather. So, you have the east. If you think of Sicily. I mean, Sicily is the warmest and the driest region in Sicily.
But, the village of Milo. The specific village of Milo. Is one of the rainiest villages in Italy. So, you have in the driest region. You have a very small village. You have a rainforest in a desert. Yes, exactly. It's a very, very particular and very specific. And then you have the altitude. Altitude is also very important. Because making wine at 3,000 feet. It's not the same as making it at 2,000 feet. So, it changes. So, this is also its very important. So, like there are. Like in the north. In the north side which is the best place. Probably for the Nerello Mascalese. And the Nerello Cappuccio. But making it very, very sometimes. Very, very easy, very, very comfortable. At 2,000 feet, it's not the same at 9,000 feet.
So, you have differences in concentration, in elegance, and also in the vintages. Because there are very, very dry vintages. Where, if you are the highest, you are the best; you are. But also, in the same time, there are sometimes some very, very difficult vintages - cold and rainy. Where it's very tough to make it, to get, to get grapes. At a nice level of migration. With a very good healthiness. At 3,000 feet. So this is also it's very interesting. Yeah, yeah. I think too. I think for the people that you know love Etna. And get excited about it. And I'm sure for you that live there. It doesn't feel like you know. It's you know something that's ending. That is tired and old. It feels like something that we're just beginning to start to appreciate.
Yeah, yeah. This is something that also thanks to Alicia. Or to people. To Giuseppe Benanti. The father of Antonia and Salvino. And Salvo also. It's something that was started and that now are known worldwide. But this is really. There is an energy. And this is also the reason why. In the very very few years. We passed from less than 20. To more than 150. Producers. Sarah we've been neglecting you. What do the people want to know. Tell us please. Several things. But if we could start with. You know I know you touched lightly on it. But Maureen had a really good question. About the contrata versus vineyard sites. Can they. I know that the contratas are a bit bigger. Do they have like. Contratas. No no. They cannot intersect. Each contrata.
There is a kind of limit. Each contrata is a place. And then next there is another name. Contrata is just the name of a specific area, so this is a map of the contrata between Randazzo and Lingualusa. It's not a very good map. The Italian I haven't [it]. It's a need. We need a better map of Etna contrata. It needs to happen. I don't know where it is. But it needs to exist. And there are some individual producers that have started to do it. It was made a guide, Taiwanese. Yeah. No Mario from the Taiwanese. Exactly. Incredible job from the Taiwanese. We have. We have a made in China map. Oh really. Made in Taiwan. Made in Taiwan. That was the Italian Contrata map. But Bill. May I add one thing on the contrata thing. The contrata is a terminology that already existed before, the Etna wine boom. Then became known so basically we have, we are using a pre-existing grid or like a way of segmenting regions. And like you said, our job now is to really be able to go much more in depth and define every single contrata. We have 133 contrata, but we are adding more because some of them are already within the Etna DOC area, but are not listed. And then the next step is to ideally get to the stage where wine from a specific contrata will reflect exactly that unique mix of elevation. Soil type, Ventilation, Light intensity, and so forth. So we are. We are working on mapping Etna better. And we are working on defining Every contrata better. But like Mario said.
They will never overlap. They are adjacent to one another. But they don't overlap. I think it is important for consumers to understand. That the contrata are bigger Than individual vineyard sites. That have an individual. So like Piero di Mezzo. Has Piero di Mezzo Procario. That is like an individual vineyard site. Within Piero di Mezzo. I think it is important to understand How they are gradually building. It is hard for consumers too, because they are not making wine in Etna. They are not on the ground. And it starts to get confusing. But I think for the people that truly love it. You start to understand the ways in which the wines are profoundly different. And you want other people to be able to understand that as well.
I think Bill, just think in terms of like villages. Like Castiglione, Randazzo, Milo. They are broken down into Frazioni or fractions. Like Passo Pisciaro, Rovitello. Montelaguardia. Montelaguardia is part of Randazzo. Passo Pisciaro and Rovitello are part of Castiglione for example. And then each of these. Is a vineyard. And then you can single out. But you cannot officially write it on a bottle of Etna DOC. A vineyard name. We are actually getting because I am currently the president of the Etna DOC consortium. We are also working on being able to identify and register old vineyards on Etna. So that one day we can claim those on the bottle. And then you will have the vineyard, the contrada, and the commune. And it is all within the province of Catania.
Which is the whole of Etna is within the province of Catania. But then you have all these different comuni, and there are 20 comuni or villages within Etna. And 133 contrade. And it's getting more and more elaborate. And like Mario said, it is so complex. I cannot think of another region with so many variables. I don't envy your job as president. I only have one more year left. We don't know. We don't know. Maybe more. How many more great years on your head? For example. In Crucimona, there is only my vineyard. It's a single vineyard. And the single contrada. I have a contrada only for me. It's like a monopoly. Monopoly. Monopoly. In Fedodimezzo. The old name was Porcaria. But now Fedodimezzo. There are a lot of producers that are making their wine.
In Fedodimezzo, as well. We have our own vineyard, a very old one, in Fedodimezzo. So it is very different. This is. And I think. It is a big work. That the consortium has to do. But I am sure. I think it is very important. That we do it. Because it is important. It is something that must be done. I think it is amazing too. For me. I think being from. I am from the suburbs of Washington DC. Kind of like being from somewhere. But it is also like being from everywhere. There isn't a strong local tradition. In Sicily. There is this hyper locality. On Etna you have individual styles of wine. On the island, you have a village that is famous for its lentils. There is a DOC for carrots.
You have cherry tomatoes, that are like the most famous cherry tomatoes. It is just like, that hyper locality is really magical. And I think, for people that are not used to it, it is really special and worth celebrating. Sarah, what else do you have for us? That kind of brings me into another question, that people have, kind of more prominent on Mount Etna. Varietals on other parts of Sicily, like near Davila, and just talking about the differences of those varietals. Presidente. Ok. Ok. I think what I would like to say on behalf, also of Alicia and Mario. Let's never forget Etna. Etna. She accounts for. 25,000 acres. So it is 10,000 hectares. Which is less than. It is about 1.5%. Of the entire Sicilian vineyard surface. So what is you know.
The mainstream or the main Sicilian varieties are not common and hardly exist on Etna. I think maybe in terms of say Nero Davila for example. Is the most important Sicilian variety. So we could think of Nero Davila as a more. Fuller bodied. And more fuller-bodied and more alcoholic and more structured type of wine. But again you can grow Nero Davila in Feudo Montoni close to Agrigento in Palermo at a very high elevation of 2,000 feet. And it would be very different. From a Nero Davila grown in Noto. But anyway. Disregarding where it could be planted, I would say that Nerello Mascalese is always the elegant and highly acidic and crisp age-worthy red fruit driven smoky and earthy variety. And then Frappato might have some similarities in terms of taste with Nerello Cappuccio, darker in color, very juicy, maybe better drunk young.
Nero Davila is fuller bodied, very often higher in alcohol, and very age-worthy, very often with those tertiary notes that come out quite early. So in a nutshell, Etna is really the elegant side of Sicily because of the higher elevation and volcanic soil. And the indigenous varieties. I think also something that people don't totally understand. Is so you know. We're talking about one grape varietal. But in an American context, you talk about one grape varietal, you're talking about genetically identical grapes, you're talking about people propagating grapes that are bought from a nursery, and genetically identical. That is not the case on Etna. No. The Nerello Mascalese from one vineyard to the next is genetically distinct. Because these are older traditions. And you know. Very you know. They're siblings. Or you know.
They're very closely related. But they're not genetically identical. It is an older way of working. And there's much more heterogeneity within that vineyard, than is common in most new world industrial vineyards. And that gives the wines a bit of a life of their own. As well. Sorry. Mario go ahead. No. This is really very right, Bill. In the vineyard, in the very old vineyard. I was talking before. In Feudo di Mezzo. This is 250 years old vineyard. With 200 year-old wines growing up to 250 years old wines growing there. And part of this wine when they were planted, they used to plant also white grapes in the middle. Because they wanted to do. The red wine and the white wine. So we have like. A very little quantity of white grapes.
Less than 10% I can say. And. So one year. We collected. Always we collected the white grapes before. Because we harvested the whites. A couple of weeks before. And then the red. So we harvested the white before. Not very much. About like 20 boxes. I said okay. 20 boxes. We can see. We can see what we have here. And so we separated. For varieties. And in just 20 boxes. In about one hectare vineyard. We separated. Nine different varieties. Of white grapes. And actually. We really recognized. Five. The other four. I don't know. I mean, but does it really matter? When you have like one box of something. You don't know. And so. These really genetic varieties. You can have. You can have a lot. Especially in the very old vineyards.
Because if now. We try. Specifically. Like the genetic. To get the best. The best grapes. That will give the best result. For this region. This is exactly. The opposite thought. That they were doing in the past. Because 200 years ago. They just wanted to plant. As much different they have available. Because their target. Was to collect something. More sensible to disease. Than other. So they. The most different they planted. In the past. The more. They were like sure. To collect something. Because there was less risk. That a single disease. Would affect all the vineyard. So maybe like a disease. Would arrive that year. And it affect some part of the vineyard. But some other varieties. Of the vineyard. Financial portfolio. The most. The most different. And then. You like you.
Arise the risk. Of problems. It's like you don't want to have. All your eggs in one basket. Would be the exact. So I'm going to just. We I'm sure. We have some more questions. I want to think. If you're willing to hang on. We would love to have you Antonio. I know you have Jack Ryan. To get to at some point. But I'm sure we have more questions. I just want to thank everyone. For joining us. And we so for all of you. Participating from Aetna. We typically give a toast. Alone together. But also you know. In Sicilian fashion. As well. So thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. I'm done with the wine. You're not? No. You have more? I have the rosé. It's mine. Sarah what else do you have for us? Well. As always. Climate change has affected all of the viewers. Ah.
I can say. From my side. Climate change is. It's effect. Especially what I see. I cannot talk about. I don't want to talk about. Warning on. Because we have some warning. But this is not significant. What I see really is a very dangerous thing. This is. It's not like something that you can evaluate. But this is something objective. I mean it's not something subjective, like. It's warmer. It's not warmer. But something objective absolutely is that you have a lot more within the last few years. Very dramatic, like. We've seen more hails. Storms. Exactly. This is. What do you say in Italian for hail? Grandine. And you see like. These very strong happenings. Such as like some very, very strong wind. Very strong wind. Or hail. Hailstorm. Or like. Heavy rains.
Or like very, very long. Dry months. I mean. This is the worst. Because it's not like an average temperature. Which is like .05 higher than a year before. The really. I mean. The great problem. And what is really. Danger for. Is this. Uncontrollable nature of happenings. It's interesting, Mario. So you know. We actually make wine in the east coast. In Virginia and DC. And environs. And the thing that they have. The wine growers have noticed. Is you know. More than you know. Extremes of temperature is wet weather.
You know. From vintage to vintage. And I think on Etna. You do have the advantage. Of being able to go higher. You know. So you know. Two, three, four degrees Celsius. You know at the very least. You can work your way slowly. You know up the mountain. But Bill. This works for the temperature. But doesn't work for the hail. The more you go higher. The more it's dangerous. That's true. Bill. Just one data. We recorded the harvest date in Milo. For our white wines. Over the last 20 years. And on average. We now harvest about six days. Earlier than 20 years ago. Wow. But again. Like Mario said. The main thing. Is the erratic. Like the huge variation. You can experience. From one year to the other. But, like you said.
Etna can really weather any kind of storm. Unless you really get hail. You know. We tend to release wines every year. Because Etna. You know with the elevation. The nice wind. The drainage in the soil. It's very hard. You can skip some. But again, it's quite a. It's a special place. Consistent. Very special. But sometimes. Also the hail. Can be. Can be good. Because if the hail came when. The grape. Is. The bunch. Not. Ripe. It's like. An operation. That. Put off some grape. Green harvest? Yes. Sometimes can. Can do. Very interesting wine. Because the wine. Was more concentrated. From. From the vineyard. But, depends on the moment. Always is very, very dangerous. But sometimes you can make good wine. Also with hail. Sarah. What else you got for us? What's the dessert wine market like? On Etna. Dessert wine. Yes.
Maybe two or one. No. I know two. Also maybe three. There is no such thing as Etna DOC. And anyway, I think it's really neglectable. Etna does not have the indigenous variety that is aromatic. I feel like Caricante could do it. Caricante is not too much on Etna. But also, it wouldn't. Don't forget they are late ripening varieties. So by the time we harvest our Caricante. It's not warm enough. To then do any drying. Would have to be artificial. I personally see. As this is just me speaking. Sweet wine. Like dessert wines. As not really a thing. That Etna should get into. But I think what you can do. Is sparkling wine. That I think people haven't. Fully appreciated yet. Yeah. Actually. The share of Etna Spumante. Is growing and growing.
And there are. Today. About 20-25. Producers of sparkling wine. On the volcano. I think like Norello in particular. Makes really interesting sparkling wine. And it gives you. And it's also I think for the growers. Is really good. Because you can harvest a little earlier. It gives you. In bad vintages. You can hedge your bets a little bit. And do something with the fruit. That might not go into. Another red wine. Like Alice said. Caricante is very precious. And so we use it. I mean, we do make a little bit of sparkling wine. Benanti. But we're also releasing a Norello Mascalese sparkling wine. The appellation. Does not currently allow. Caricante. So a sparkling wine from Etna. Is an Etna Spumante. Whereas a Caricante sparkling wine. On Etna. Cannot be called Etna Spumante.
Can't you change that? You can't. No. The members of the consortium. Are all in favor. So, I cannot change it. Sarah, what else do you have for us? You know the one last burning question. Is kind of some of the wines. That you put on the website. Which is, you know, Frank Cornelison. Oh yeah. So we haven't. I will preface this with. I think that. So I'm not Sicilian. I'm not Italian. And I think a lot of. You know credit. And attention has gone to. Other people that look like me. You know, I mean, like Frank. Frank makes interesting wines. Anna Martins makes interesting wines. Etc. But you know, I think. It is important to. Be giving credit to. You know, Sicilians. By the same token. There are a lot of people making wine.
In a lot of different styles. On Etna, you know how do you all feel about that? You know, do you want to drink Frank's wines? Do you want to drink? You know, vino d'Anna wines. Do you accept that they are expressive of the place? That is your home. Or do they feel foreign? No, we drink all the wines. Yeah. There are funky wines. Made by locals and non-locals. There are cleaner wines. Made by locals and non-locals. Wine, I think, is a very personal thing. As long as it reflects where it's made and it's true to the place, we would enjoy it. Maybe I would not go for the very extreme ones. But those that are a little bit funky. But not super extreme. And I think you know, they are very real wines like ours.
And there's definitely room for them. Even though it's still quite small on Etna. I would say. I think too that Etna is still emerging. You know, on the global marketplace. And I think there's something really special about that. I think that you know, everyone, wherever they are, whatever they're doing, it's still very invested in the success of the place. And there's not quite as much tribalism, as there can be, in other regions that are more well-established. Where you know, there's this establishment. That's oppressive to you know. Rebel against. I don't like having been to Etna. I didn't feel that way. It just felt like, you know. Everybody wanted to drink together. And celebrate what makes Etna such a magical place. Yeah, I think this too. I think that on Etna.
Very very. I told you before. A very good energy. A very strong energy. But also, I think. I feel also a very nice mood. Between all the producers. And like each of us. Has his own style. His own vision. His own way of growing wines. Or making the wine in the cellar. But by the way, the most important is that everyone is doing their own best in terms of quality. And like, as Antonio said. There are like more funky wines. More natural wines. More fine wines. But the important thing is more. Is work at the best. And also, I think that the contribution that these wines gave to Etna in terms of knowledge worldwide was important. And this was all the work that everyone did in the last years to know, to know the brand Etna, to know the name Etna.
All over was anything good. And also it's very nice that even if we have some different styles of the wine. But still. The restaurant relationship are very nice and very strong. Bill. I just wanted to chime in here for a second from an importer standpoint. Just to say one thing. I think you're 100% correct. I've noticed in my dealings. With different wine makers. On Etna. They all love everyone else's success. And you can tell that. And how they self promote themselves. One example is. Antonio as he said earlier. He's the president of the DOC. And he was voted 100% unanimously. To become the president. I highly doubt you find that. In any other wine growing region. Especially in Italy. There's definitely unity. If you look at cooperatives and what not.
Usually your cooperatives in northern Italy. And Alto Adige have worked very well. And also in Sicily. So it's kind of odd. I've never seen that in Tuscany. Bill. You know what. I think what we might be worried about. Maybe is the other end. The other extreme. Maybe some wineries. Growing too much. Or too much land. Being exploited. Where even. Less optimal parcels. Currently the largest. The largest producer. On Etna. Makes about 25,000 cases. Wow. So that's small. So we of course. We are much more in favor of. The. Like you said. The more extreme or funky. Kind of let's say. New trend. Than. Maybe seeing. Kind of industrial Etna. Being produced. Which we are definitely against. And. We don't have. The volumes on Etna. For Etna to become. An industrial winery. Where it's very artisanal. But we will always support. Like you said. The locals. And you know. Everyone that is true to the territory. And I think too. I think you know. For as much as you know. Those.
There's nothing unnatural. About what any of you are doing. You know. I mean depending on. Depending on how you feel about the addition of sulfur. But you know. We are dealing with wines made with native yeast. Wines made hugely sustainably. You know. In the vineyard. Using artisanal methods. And that are incredibly expressive of place. And you know. They are not. You know.
Glossed to that, You know. There's no marketability to that; they are more kind of You know. Soapful. Stay in your lane. Kind of like true to Sicily. True to Etna kind of wines. But you know. They are not diminished at all. And I think that's really important to understand as well, for people that You know. Want to drink natural wine.
You know. Something that is not worth talking about at the moment. But you know. Is historically much lower than it ever has been. To begin with. And you know. Etna is a very special place for growing grapes. Because it is so easy to grow grapes. Without the kind of interventions that people have to use elsewhere. And I think that's equally important to understand. This is something. That we learned to emphasize. Bill. And I think. All the participants to know. That Etna is a very healthy place. Because we have a lot of sunshine, ventilation, and drainage in the soil. The risk of fungal disease is really low. And we never go beyond three or four preventive treatments. In a whole growing season. And that is so much lower than so many other regions.
And that's without fungicides or herbicides. That's just you know. Copper sulfide or whatever. Absolutely. And what's crazy about that too. Is that you could have a producer that's biodynamic, and sprays copper sulfide like. You know two dozen times during a given growing season. And you know that's fine. And they'll get all the press in the world for being biodynamic. But I don't know. It becomes very arbitrary in a way that I think is important to acknowledge. And you know, again having been to Etna. I just want people to understand that a you should go there when circumstances allow. Because it is just magical. It is magical. Like I remember. So I stayed on the Agriturismo, that Alberto Gracchi's cousin's on Sotela, right up that Rondazzo. Parco Sotela. Yeah, really lovely restaurant. And anyway, like. So I was outside. I was reading The Leopard. And I had to put... I had to go back into our hotel. To put on a sweatshirt. Because it was cold at night. And it's just you know. It's so... And the quality of light. Is just different. Like, I don't know what you guys do. I don't know if you invited photographers. To consult. The light. Just the light.
You know, I mean. And my wife and I. We loved Sicily. We loved everywhere we went in Sicily. And you know, I've been to other parts of Italy. But Etna, in particular, has this magic. So at the end... We are not a good producer. But we are lucky to stay on Etna. I think we should. I think we should leave it at that. Yeah. Yeah, so. Thank you. Thank you all so much. So special. Thank you.
