Volcanic wine: A taste of Italy

With its inclement weather, 45-degree slopes, and regular volcanic eruptions, Sicily’s Mount Etna is an “insane place to produce wine,” said Megan Krigbaum in Food & Wine. Yet those features also explain why winemakers have recently flocked to the area, creating one of Italy’s “most exciting wine regions.” On Etna’s old vines, grapes ripen very slowly. The payoff is wines with “intense minerality and effusive flavors.”

Cornelissen Magma 8VA ($160). Winemaker Frank Cornelissen saves the best of his Nerello Mascalese grapes for this earthy wine, which he ages in clay amphorae.

2011 Planeta Carricante ($40). A “bright and aromatic” white from an Etna newcomer.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

2009 Graci Etna Rosso ($28). Grapes from old and new vineyards are used to make this “focused, strawberry-rich” red.