IDDA Etna Rosso 2017
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Robert
Parker - Decanter
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Mineral notes bound to sweet aromas, like marzipan, but with tart black cherry and mulberry rising from the glass. The wine shows notes of candied citrus fruits, but also soft herbal tones, such as fresh tomato leaf and oregano. This wine has a clear expression of ripe and sweet fruit on the palate. The finish leads off with Intriguing minerality, with a hint of flint. A medium structure with good acidity makes it enjoyable and refreshing.
Blend: 98% Nerello Mascalese, 2% Nerello Cappuccio
Pair this wine alongside chicken, duck, lamb, mild cheeses and/or pork dishes.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Etna Rosso is almost all Nerello Mascalese with a small 10% part of Nerello Cappuccio that makes for an ideal blending partner. This was a scorching-hot vintage, but Gaia Gaja and Alberto Graci tell me that compact basalt rocky soils make for a unique situation in which vine root systems can find ample humidity underground despite dry and sun-drenched soil at the top level. Dig just under the surface, Gaia Gaja tells me, and the soils are cool and moist. This expression is powerful and bold, with dark fruit and dried cherry followed by crushed white pepper (a result of the Nerello Cappuccio) and lots of resiny spice. The tannins are soft and yielding, and there are subtle waves of hot-vintage aromas that appear mostly as scorched earth and black volcanic stone.
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Decanter
2017 was a hot, dry vintage and generally more challenging. It was also the first vintage of this wine. It's a little rustic around the edges, but I love that it has an intriguing and distinctive identity, proclaiming, 'I am a volcanic wine!' Terracotta, warm earth, orange peel and flinty notes sweep across a nicely integrated palate, although the tannins have a grippy edge that reminds one of the volcano.
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In 2015, Angelo Gaja and Alberto Graci met for the first time. As the Gaja’s got to better know Alberto and his family over time, Angelo’s deep curiosity for their culture and land kept growing, and the desire of working together came naturally. Toward the end of 2016, based on the mutual respect and love of the artisanal approach in winemaking, Gaja and Graci decided to form a joint venture, a first for both of their families.
“Idda” (ee-duh) means “she” in the Sicilian dialect, which is a term of endearment and expression of awe with which Sicilians refer to Mt. Etna. For the people of Sicily, Etna is more than a mountain; it is a breathing being with her own identity and personality, a quick-tempered, capricious, yet maternal and protective mother on whom they depend on each day. In honor of Etna, IDDA is the name of our new adventure. A joint venture involving two families: Gaja and Graci (Gra-chi), that began in 2016, founded to explore the southern slope of Etna. Together searching for vineyards that express elegance and complexity driven by the specific site, soil & sunlight- that is unique to this land. IDDA is pure energy
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.