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