Winemaker Notes
Deep mulberry ruby red in color, this wine offers a bouquet of violets and balsamic notes. The palate is defined by intensely ripe black forest fruits that are crunchy, mineral, and spicy, supported by fine chalky tannins, balanced acidity, and impressive length.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This energetic red Etna has a well-packed nose of blood oranges, violets, geraniums, black pepper and assertive pomegranate. Full-bodied with a soft, smooth attack, crisp acidity and velvety tannins. This has very good fruit concentration, a crunchy finish and great balance.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A bright medium red color, the 2022 Etna Rosso offers is elegant and spicy and pure, with notes of fresh cherries, roses, fennel, dusty earth, and perfume. Medium-bodied, it has fine, well-defined tannins, with a stony texture and a clean, savory spice on the finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Opening to a luminous ruby appearance, the Graci 2022 Etna Rosso delivers aromas of redcurrant and dried raspberry from a warm vintage. Those ripe primary tones are followed by well-dosed hints of clove and spice. The bouquet opens quickly to a second wave of mineral, ash, licorice and crushed flowers.
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Wine Spectator
This red is textbook Etna for its appealing flavors of plumped cherry and raspberry fruit, with fragrant herb and spice accents. Offers a baseline of minerally tar and stone, plus fine, lightly chalky tannins. Fresh and balanced, with a creamy finish. Drink now through 2032. 3,300 cases made, 1,100 cases imported.
Extending across the variable volcanic soils of the slopes of Mt. Etna at some of the highest vineyard altitudes in all of Europe—up to 3,300 feet—Nerello Mascalese is one of Sicily’s most noble red varieties. It makes a beautifully aromatic, firm, cellar-worthy but pale-hued red often comparable to a fine Burgundy or Barbaresco. Somm Secret—Nerello Mascalese takes its name from the black color of its grapes, nerello, and the Mascali plain between Mt. Etna and the coast where it is believed to have originated.
A large, geographically and climatically diverse island, just off the toe of Italy, Sicily has long been recognized for its fortified Marsala wines. But it is also a wonderful source of diverse, high quality red and white wines. Steadily increasing in popularity over the past few decades, Italy’s fourth largest wine-producing region is finally receiving the accolades it deserves and shining in today's global market.
Though most think of the climate here as simply hot and dry, variations on this sun-drenched island range from cool Mediterranean along the coastlines to more extreme in its inland zones. Of particular note are the various microclimates of Europe's largest volcano, Mount Etna, where vineyards grow on drastically steep hillsides and varying aspects to the Ionian Sea. The more noteworthy red and white Sicilian wines that come from the volcanic soils of Mount Etna include Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio (reds) and Carricante (whites). All share a racy streak of minerality and, at their best, bear resemblance to their respective red and white Burgundies.
Nero d’Avola is the most widely planted red variety, and is great either as single varietal bottling or in blends with other indigenous varieties or even with international ones. For example, Nero d'Avola is blended with the lighter and floral, Frappato grape, to create the elegant, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, one of the more traditional and respected Sicilian wines of the island.
Grillo and Inzolia, the grapes of Marsala, are also used to produce aromatic, crisp dry Sicilian white. Pantelleria, a subtropical island belonging to the province of Sicily, specializes in Moscato di Pantelleria, made from the variety locally known as Zibibbo.