Etna DOC is one of the fastest-growing wine regions of Italy, located in Sicily on the slopes of the Etna active volcano that obviously gives the name to the DOC. The Etna wine-producing sub-regions are located in the Eastern and in Northern sides of the volcano, where cooling breezes and high altitude mitigate the warm to the hot climate of inland Sicily
This wine region has hundreds of different terroirs and microclimates; the best expressions of red Etna DOC are wines produced from the vineyards located on high-altitude slopes, where there is a high diurnal range, and relatively low temperatures comparable to Burgundy and Alto Adige. Etna’s wine producers are experimenting with vineyard sites further and further up the slopes of the volcano in order to gauge the effects of the richer, blacker lava flow soils and increased altitude.
The two key grape varieties of the Etna DOC are Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio, two indigenous varieties of this area. Nerello Mascalese is the most widely planted grape variety in the Etna DOC because it is perfectly suited for this warm climate: long ripening season and the ability to retain a good level of acidity even in the hottest sites.
The Etna DOC red wines often display elegant red fruits aromas, combined with delicate herbal and balsamic notes and powerful aromas of flint, smoke and wet stone. Even though it is grown in a hot climate region, these wines have a pale red color, similar to the wines produced in cool climates from early ripening red varieties, like Pinot Noir.
The best vines are bush-trained and they are grown on steep slopes with sandy volcanic soils that allow the grapes to be planted without rootstocks. In fact, phylloxera is not able to survive in the black sandy volcanic soils found on the higher altitude sites.
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