Passopisciaro, Contrada S Terre Siciliane IGT, Sicily, Italy, 2019

Overview of the Wine
Volcanoes are gloomy places, and when I arrived, Mt. Etna was even gloomier because it was an abandoned volcano. Wineries lay collapsed all over its slopes; stonewalled terraces disappeared everywhere up the mountain in the bushes. There was the misery of blackened streets and ashen churches in large old towns. These were the feelings I had in the winter of 2000 when I first came to Etna. It seemed crazy to restore vineyards so high up the mountain – above, it was erupting – but I liked that they were planted so high.

At the top of the steep Passopisciaro property looms a hump of black gravel. It’s where the lava spill from a big eruption in 1947 had stopped, caking up just before it could submerge whole terraces below it, vines, walls, and buildings: on Etna you can lose it all.

Here, it’s always very cold at night, even in August. During the day in the vineyards the lava powder penetrates in the skin and you get intoxicated, tired. The first wine I made was pale and meager, and I was discouraged. I planted other grapes; whatever is planted there the wine always tastes of citrus and camphor, without that generous body that you like earth to lend right away to a wine.

There’s no mold, no moss; the ground sparkles black like the night; the wine slowly becomes very elegant and strange. During the day a soft light penetrates everything and then there are starry nights; Etna has enormous poetry. Making wine, you have access to it. There isn’t Mother Nature here. You are conducting your viticulture on stuff that comes out of the terrible below.

Grape / Blend
Nerello Mascalese

Origin
Sicily, Italy

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
Ruby garnet colour, fine violet and rose notes and many spices in the bouquet. Dense and compact with taut tannin and sweet fruit melt. Given time, this captivating red is at the beginning of a long, promising development.

This vintage brought about sinuous wines that are not too high in alcohol, with the right equilibrium between fresh fruit and vertical acidity, characteristics due to this final period of physiological maturity at the end of the winding growing season. A year of excellent quality since the rains spared us their odious inference. Contrada Sciaranuova is located at 850m a.s.l. The name means “new casting” in Sicilian, indicating the recent geological age of the casting formed just 400 years ago. The wine is deep, broad in complexion, with a note of fermented hay. The vineyard covers 1 hectare of surface.

97 Points - Wine Enthusiast
Red berry, rose, wild herb, dark spice and slate aromas shape the enticing nose on this fragrant, gorgeous red. Full-bodied and elegantly structured, the savory palate has an ethereal weightlessness, featuring ripe Marasca cherry, pomegranate, blood orange and white pepper before a flinty mineral finish. It already has tension and great depth, but hold a few more years for more complexity. Drink 2024–2031.

95 Points - Vinous
Nosing the 2019 Contrada Sciaranuova (S) is a total pleasure. Masses of rose petals, sour cherries, tangerine, cedar and smoke form its wonderfully perfumed bouquet. This is seamlessly silky without any hard edges, displaying a harmonious mix of ripe red fruits and sweet inner spice. It finishes structured, remarkably long, but also fresh, leaving the palate with a youthful concentration, but also residual acids that maintain a juicy persona. The 2019 is a stunning rendition of Sciaranuova. Drinking Window: 2024 – 2031

Product size: 750ml