Old school New England 92 - Scanorama

the thin-bearded Cornelissen decided to
switch from seller to producer in 2000
after a blind tasting of an Etna wine at
a restaurant in Modica. “The first bottle
was a bit harsh, very green in tannins, but
it was eye-opening,” he recalls.
After years of burgundy and Barolo,
Cornelissen decided to go back to nature
and take a radically different approach to
expressing Etna’s terroir. He adds nothing
to his wine and leaves it unfiltered. In
place of oak barrels, he ages his wines in
400 liter terracotta jars that are buried in
the volcanic soil inside his garage.
“I wanted to imagine how people made
wine in the past. Over 2,000 years ago
they were making wine on Etna, and I
don’t think the Romans would have put
up with drinking vinegar.”
Cornelissen even traveled to Georgia’s
Ka k heti region to meet farmers who have
long used amphorae in wine making. To -
day, he makes 20,000 bottles of his allnatural
wine and prides himself on his
hands-on approach, which includes
painting the labels on his prized Magma
vin tage. “My philosophy is this: the person
who makes the wine should be the
one to prune the vine, because the vine
is everything.”
Agriculture on Etna can be hard going.
Summers are hot and dry; winters can be
cold and harsh. Grapes see big fluc tu a tions
in daytime and nighttime temper atures,
and October, traditionally the har vest
month, gets the most rain, making growers’
lives a nightmare as they mull over
the best time to pick. Rocky de bris left
behind by recent lava spills restricts acreage,
forcing some to plant vines on steep
gradi ents. On sharp slopes make shift
chairlifts are used to transport grapes.
Workers, who pick by hand, communicate
with their colleagues at the base of
the hill by signaling with colored rags.
When we visit Tasca d’Almerita’s Tascante
estate on Etna, laborers are busy
picking up rocks one by one to clear
away a re cently planted field. The rocks
are then re cycled to build storage huts
and walls that line the label’s terraced
vineyard. The scene recalls agriculture
as practiced by the ancient Greeks, who
settled on Etna 2,700 years ago.
MARCO DE GRAZIA HAS JOINED the ranks of
so phisticated winemakers eager to elevate
Etna’s reputation in viticultural circles.
A wine importer who moved to Etna
in 2002, de Grazia has three decades of
experience helping growers up and down
Italy improve their own labels and prime
them for export. But when he came across
Hot rock: Etna
smokes away in
the distance
the wines here, he finally got the urge to
get his hands dirty.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think
I’d be a grower but I see great potential,”
says de Grazia as he tucks his pruning
shears into his breast pocket. “It’s a cross
between Burgundy and Piedmont. On my
label I even call it the ‘Burgundy of the
Mediterranean.’ ”
Over dinner, we taste his 2008 Calderara
Sottana. During the meal, the wine
opens up and grows deeper and becomes
silkier. While the bulk is nerello mascalese,
he adds a touch of nerello cappuccio
grape, which he describes as “fleshier,
the merlot to mascalese’s cabernet.” To -
day, Tenuta delle Terre Nere produces
160,000 bottles, and de Grazia has four
growths of which he is very proud, including
one made from vines that predate the
phylloxera epidemic.
Next to his winery in Randazzo, a town
on the northwestern edge of Etna that has
been lucky enough to escape the volcano’s
wrath, we try a few more wines over lunch
at the popular trattoria San Giorgio e il
Drago housed, fittingly, in a former cantina.
The Anzalone brothers, Pippo and
Daniele, keep patrons’ glasses filled with
local vintages and pair them with sumptuous
plates of rabbit and polpette (meatballs)
that are skillfully prepared by their
mother, Signora Paola, 79. She rules with
Uphill struggle: Nerello mascalese vines
a firm hand from her perch in the kitchen,
often telling off her sons if they are slow
to pick up orders. It’s early afternoon and
the rustic dining room is close to empty,
but in future the untiring Paola may need
to put in overtime. If Etna’s vintages keep
racking up top scores, it won’t be long be -
fore the food and wine crowd is clamoring
for a table. �
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SCANORAMA DECEMBER 2011/JANUARY 2012 79
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