RedLead grape in 2
Nerello Mascalese
The red of Etna, grown on terraces of black volcanic sand on the slopes of an active volcano, often on ungrafted vines over a century old. It is pale, high in acid and finely tannic, with red cherry, wild herbs, ash and a savoury, smoky depth. Altitude ranges from three hundred to over a thousand metres, and harvest on the high sites can run into November.
Worth knowing
The individual lava flows are mapped and named, and the contrada bottlings work like crus. Two wines from vineyards a few hundred metres apart can taste properly different, because the soil is a record of which eruption happened to cover that piece of ground and when.
Where it is allowed5 appellations