2015 Graci Rosso Etna Sicily

Even Gaja Can’t Get Enough of Graci’s Etna Rosso

Angelo Gaja has been called a “winemaking genius” by Robert Parker, and is undoubtedly Italy’s greatest winemaker. As Parker’s Wine Advocate says, “Barbaresco is lucky to have an Angelo Gaja, the Langhe is lucky to have him, and Italy is, too.” Gaja has brought his midas touch beyond his home of Barbaresco, with his Pieve Santa Restituta in Montalcino and Ca’ Marcanda in Bolgheri. Now he has his sights set firmly on Italy’s next hotbed of vinous greatness — Mt. Etna. But rather than establish his own estate, he is choosing to work with the Etna winemaker he respects above all others: Alberto Graci. One thousand feet up on the slopes of Mt. Etna, Graci farms some of the highest 100-year-old Nerello Mascalese vines on the volcano. The altitude and its “territory-specific aromas,” as the Advocate puts it, help explain the 2015 Graci Rosso’s “power and grace.” The immense complexity of Graci’s wines have attracted sommeliers at NYC’s Del Posto and Carbone, which regularly feature Graci’s labels. Lovers of Piedmont’s beauty and rusticity will love this silky 2015 Graci Rosso, and so will Etna enthusiasts, but any wine lover who locks into this as their first Etna wine from Sicily will find their wine world has been remapped.

Wine Spectator put it squarely: “Why Etna?” they asked Angelo Gaja, who responded: “It was something that I have been feeling under the skin for some time.” Gaia, Angelo’s daughter, added, “We are very happy to start this new adventure on Etna. We always found the Etna wines very interesting for many reasons, and in particular because they have in common with Barbaresco and Barolo the fact of not being immediate and of having a delicate and elegant character. But we would have never done a step on Etna alone as we don’t have specific and deep knowledge on the region.”

That’s why they turned to Alberto Graci — the fearless and veritable Zarathustra of Mt. Etna. Incredibly, the active volcano poses a real and constant threat of eruption, which requires a different outlook on life altogether. Graci, as quoted by The New York Times’ Eric Asimov, responds to the threat as a New Yorker might to holiday-shopping crowds on Fifth Avenue: “Lava? We are fatalists,” he said. “We don’t care. It’s normal for us.”

The volcano may not keep Graci up at night, but it is responsible for the striking uniqueness of the region’s wines. The highly complex soils, a mixture of lava flows and ash, allow native grapes like Nerello Mascalese to deliver what Graci calls “a balance between elegance and rusticity” that is hard to find anywhere else. “Etna is an electrical place, an emotional place,” Graci says, and in Sicily’s outstanding 2015 vintage, Graci produced a terrific, complex, elegant and silky Rosso. Recommended by the case.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 14.00%
• Enjoy right away
• Drink Up
• % Nerello Mascalese
• Serving temperature – 58°
• Cork