Winemaker Notes
This wine is spicy with a burst of savory herbs and flowery underbrush, which complicates a core of dried black cherries. It flows across the palate like pure silk, polished and refined, with mounting saline mineral tones contrasting its ripe wild berry fruits. It pairs well with aged cheeses and main dishes featuring red meat.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A refined and balanced Etna rosso with dark berries, plums and cherries as well as some citrus. Medium-bodied, it has firm tannins and a crisp finish. Drink now or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Monteleone 2022 Etna Rosso is 90% Nerello Mascalese with 10% Nerello Cappuccio from a 2.5-hectare site at 500 meters in elevation just a few hundred meters from the Alcantara River. This area is very interesting because, although the soils here are mostly volcanic sands like elsewhere on Etna, this spot has 10% limestone clay in the mix. This makes for a special bouquet, with a spicy element that recalls dried chili pepper or white peppercorn that frames black cherry and blackcurrant. These aromas are exciting and bright, and what stands out most is the energy of the wine. Many Etna reds from this vintage appear faded and flat but not this charming mid-weight wine.
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.