Etna Rosso DOC 'Calderara Sottana' 2020 (750 ml.) - Tenuta delle Terre Nere

THE WINE

Etna Rosso 'Calderara Sottana' by Tenuta delle Terre Nere is the fruit of nerello mascalese and nerello cappuccio grapes from Calderara Sottana: vineyard located between 600 and 700 m elevation, where the light pumice stone and basalt stones of which it is completely covered hold and release the heat during the cool nights, favoring a perfect ripening of the grapes. Refined in 20% new French oak woods of different capacities (barriques, tonneaux, large barrels) for a period varying between 16 and 18 months and for a final month in steel, the distinctive feature of Calderara is to know how to donate feelings of fullness on the palate, while remaining ineffably light and elegant - creamy, probably the most immediate of Terre Nere's red Etna cru.

THE COMPANY

If today the recognizability and the value of Etna wines, obtained from the most suitable vineyards lying on the northern slopes of the volcano, are recurrent themes among lovers of good wine, whether they are professionals or enthusiasts in the continuous search for new liquid emotions, we must also - not to mention above all - the dedication with which Marco de Grazia produces and promotes his wines. Italian-American, graduated in Berkeley in comparative literature, Marco arrived for the first time in Randazzo in the nineties, after a long experience as an exporter and consultant for fine wines. By catching a glimpse of the thousand taste subtleties in which Nerello is declined in the different historical sub-areas (on-site called contrade) and even more in the individual plots that compose them, Marco makes the Tenuta delle Terre Nere the incubator of discovery and the permanent laboratory of processing of the multi-faceted identity of this land, rightly considered the "Burgundy of the Mediterranean". An extraordinary place, where nature is severe but lavish at the same time.

We are, to be precise, between Solicchiata and Randazzo: it is here that the thirty hectares of company property meet, of which at present about 27 are those planted with vines, divided into ten distinct plots. The altitudes range from 600 to a thousand meters above sea level and, except for a small vineyard recently planted, all the rows have plants that vary in age from fifty to one hundred years, with some pre-dried vines that even touch the 140 years of age.

Since 2002 with organic management and certified since 2010, the company pursues a sustainable and environmentally friendly philosophy, which leads to obtaining labels in which all that nature has created is valued and enhanced. Rossi, Bianchi and Rosati, in some cases vinified also exclusively by prephylloxera plants, are wines, those produced by Tenuta delle Terre Nere, which like few others tell the true essence of Etna, emphasizing all those that are the best peculiarities of the terroir of what is the largest Italian volcano.