Winemaker Notes
Pietradolce Etna Rosso DOC is bright red in color with notes of berries and brushwood. Fragrant fruity and floral notes anticipate a full and elegant mouth. Elegance, minerality, and excellent persistence on the palate.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2023 Etna Rosso Pietradolce is a dark and brooding effort with a whiff of flowery underbrush and ashen stone giving way to crushed black cherry. Silky smooth, it sweeps across the palate with ripe wild berry fruit and a collage of sweet spice, all guided by juicy acidity. The 2023 leaves a saturation of primary concentration and a tinge of tart blackberry while finishing with tension. This is far from an easy-drinking, simple Rosso. It should excel through medium-term cellaring.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made with fruit from the estate's youngest vines (aged from 15 to 30 years old), the Pietradolce 2023 Etna Rosso has an informal personality that points to freshness and primary fruit. Winemaking is simple, with fermentation in steel and a very brief three months in French oak. That oak adds more to the overall integration of the wine and is virtually invisible otherwise. Dark cherry, cassis, plum and smoky volcanic ash emerge from the bouquet.
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.