An Ode to Sicilian Wine

Specifically a minerally white from Mount Etna

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It’s no secret to wine nerds just how great the wines of Italy’s island region of Sicily can be. But after recently experiencing an especially terrific white from the Mount Etna subregion (an active volcano!), I was reminded that this is most likely still a secret to many. And here I am to share ALL the secrets about this beauty pictured above, Girolamo Russo Etna Bianco. We enjoyed it a few weeks back on an early spring evening with pan roasted Triggerfish and a simple, fresh from the garden salad. The wine is a blend of Carricante, Catarratto, and other indigenous white varieties. My tasting notes: lemon, some apple, but MOSTLY ROCKS. 

But first things first, let’s get our bearings. Where are we? Many folks like to refer to Italy as the boot (due to its uncanny resemblance to one on a map), and Sicily is an island just west of the boot’s toe in the Mediterranean Sea! (Click here for a great Italian wine map from Wine Folly.) Unsurprisingly given its location, the island has a classic Mediterranean climate with plenty of sunshine and moderate rainfall – perfect for grape growing! 

Also unsurprisingly given its location and this climate, Sicily has a VERY long history of grape growing and winemaking (after all this whole area around the Mediterranean was once quite the center of the world). And there’s even proof of Sicily’s long wine history! In 2017 researchers found evidence of wine in terracotta vessels (in a Sicilian cave!) dating back to the fourth millennium B.C. (that’s over 6,000 years ago – WOW!) 

More savvy grape growing came to Sicily with the Phoenicians around 1100 B.C. – followed per usual by the Greeks (around 800 B.C.) and the Romans (around 241 B.C. to 440 A.D.). The next thousand years brought a laundry list of invaders and influence from many cultures. Fast forward to the late 1700s when Englishman John Woodhouse helped bring recognition to Sicily’s fortified wine known as Marsala on the eastern coast of the island. While Marsala had somewhat of a hay day, other organized wine production had slow growth, and by the late 1800s the vine pest known as Phylloxera hit Sicily (along with the rest of Europe) crippling much of the island’s wine development. Then came successive world wars, a dictatorship that lasted until 1945, and a subsequent exodus to the United States by many Sicilians – a perfect storm that really crippled Sicily’s quality wine industry until the late 20th century. 

Okay, that was A LOT! And while the entire island of Sicily is worth an exploration (both intellectually and in person if you are lucky (it’s on my short bucket list!)) – my real focus today is on the subregion of Mount Etna, an active volcano in the northeast of Sicily. (Click here for another great Wine Folly map – she truly has the BEST maps!)

In Volcanic Wine by Master Sommelier John Szabo (an awesome book!), he describes Mount Etna as: “Between Sicily’s two mountain ranges – the Nebrodi along the north coast and the Sicilian Apennines through the center of the island – Mount Etna rises in solitary grandeur, like an island on the island framed by the Alcantara and Simeto Rivers. To Sicilians, Etna is better known as Mongibello, a combination of the Arabic Gibel, and the Italian Monte, both meaning mountain. It’s such a pervasive feature of the island they named it twice.”

This volcanic mountain is the result of 600,000 years of eruptions (that began on the seafloor), and it now reaches 3350 meters (nearly 11,000 feet) in height. Volcanic soil is actually great for grapes, and like the rest of the island there has been a long grape growing history here dating back to the Phoenicians. (The name Etna is in fact thought to have come from the Phoenician word attuna, meaning furnace.) 

And it’s this volcanic soil that in a way saved the Etna wine tradition even through the more bleak times of the 20th century. See, the volcanic soil did not make it easy for that awful vineyard pest known as Phylloxera, and consequently many old vines survived. Furthermore, the rough terrain was not a great spot for the industrial grape growing that came with dictatorial rule, and thus Etna also mostly escaped that tragedy. 

In the words of the aforementioned wine writer John Szabo: “Etna slept through the post World War II industrialization of Italy when many old vineyards elsewhere were replanted in productive monocultures.”

But still, to put it bluntly, things were not good. By the 1980s only a few serious bottlers of Etna wine remained. Thankfully, salvation came in the way of  Dr. Giuseppe Benanti, a pharmacist who decided to revive his family’s winemaking tradition in 1988. He spent years relearning his forefathers’ lessons and brought in a young grape grower/winemaker Salvo Foti who would become one of Etna’s superstars! 

Definitely look for the wines of Benanti and Foti, but back to the wine that inspired this never-ending newsletter – Girolamo Russo Etna Bianco. Giussepe Russo began his career as a pianist before returning to his family’s old vineyards on Mount Etna upon his father’s passing in 2005. His father cultivated grapes to sell in bulk, but Giussepe returned in the midst of the Etna renaissance and embraced the move towards high quality grape growing and winemaking. The Russos have 26 hectares of land – 15 planted to vineyards and the rest to olives and hazelnut groves. Their vineyards are on the north facing slope of the volcano. They farm organically and use minimal intervention in the cellar.

The Etna Bianco “Nerina” is mostly made up of the star white grape of Etna (Carricante) alongside other native grapes. His Etna Rosso “À Rina” is made up mostly of Nerello Mascalese (the star red grape of Etna that has some Nebbiolo like traits) blended with a bit of its cousin Nerello Cappuccio. Look for both AND their fabulous rosé at your own local wine shop! And if you are feeling splurgey look for their single vineyard wines! 

For pairings, I would definitely recommend any sort of seafood with the whites. And for the reds they can indeed stand up to grilled meats. I especially loved our simple pairing of the Triggerfish with a pan sauce of brown butter and lemon. If you are timid about cooking fish let that fear be gone. All you need is a good cast iron skillet heated over a medium-high flame with a bit of olive oil. Season your fish filets and sear on one side until nicely browned (just a few minutes), and then flip to the other side and add unsalted butter to the pan. Use a large spoon to baste the fish with some of this butter as the fish finishes cooking. (For relatively thin filets like the Triggerfish, the entire cooking time should be about 8 minutes.) Remove fish from the pan and reserve on a plate. Add juice from one lemon to the pan and allow to reduce just a bit, about 1 minute. Serve fish with this pan sauce! Buon Appetito! 

To inspire your own travel to Mount Etna check out this photo shared by friends who have visited several times! They describe Etna in this way: “When standing on the hillside (of the volcano) you don’t think you’re on an active volcano but you always feel like it’s above you and watching you. I would describe it as living. It’s always present whether driving around and you see it from afar or standing on it and seeing the soil.”