Winemaker Notes
Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso Calderara Sottana is pale ruby with mahogany hues. A penetrating bouquet, with notes of rich ripe fruit and spice. Structured, full and complex, with rich tannic feel.
Blend: 100% Nerello Mascalese
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The purity and clarity to this really talks to you, with red cherry, orange peel, citrus blossom and basalt. Hints of smoke and tar, too. The transparency is really something here.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Tenuta delle Terre Nere 2022 Etna Rosso Calderara Sottana is easy to identify in a blind tasting. That's because of the deft hand of its creator, vintner Marco de Grazia. I point specifically to the expert use of oak on the often fragile Nerello Mascalese grape from old vines and volcanic soils. This wine sees 16 months in French barrique and tonneaux, and although you taste the grain and the spice of the wood selected, you also get a clear view on the fruit. Blackcurrant, crushed rose and campfire ash rise from the bouquet. This site has less ash mixed into the soils and is positioned at 600 to 650 meters above sea level. This is a release of 10,000 bottles, and each is stamped with the words "Grande Terroir Ellittico," which refers to the elliptical shape of this magnificent wine region.
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Vinous
The 2022 Etna Rosso Calderara Sottana is intense and spicy in the glass. Crushed ashen stones and grilled herbs give way to dried black cherries and spiced orange peels. Luxuriously smooth up front, this finds a lovely lift through a core of tantalizing acidity as saline minerals and the onset of grippy tannins firm up its ripe wild berry fruits. This tapers off with tremendous length and concentration, leaving a youthfully structured feel and a pleasantly tart sensation that lingers on and on. Rating: 95+
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Wine Spectator
High-toned and floral on the nose, this is well-spiced on the palate, with ground cardamom, clove and sandalwood accents lacing the macerated cherry and raspberry fruit, dried thyme and blood orange peel flavors. Elegant and finely knit, with a raw silk–like, textured feel to the limber tannins and good length through the persistent finish.
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.