Passopisciaro, Rosso, Terre Siciliane IGT, Sicily, Italy, 2009

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.

Winemaker
Andrea Franchetti

Grape / Blend
100% Nerello Mascalese

Origin
Sicily, Italy

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
The weather in 2009 had a particular effect on our wines, giving them a greater tension and density than normal. Scattered rains through the end of September, then continual into the middle of October: the rising humidity prompted us to pick earlier than in other year in each of the various vineyards that rise across the northern face of the volcano at the different altitudes.

2009 was a year of wines with strong varietal character than others because of the earlier pickings, so the blend amasses aromatic power, holds a backward, tight structure, and shows great complexity and aging potential. We fermented quickly and without maceration, and started aging the wines after running them, already clean of lees, in large vessels of wood and concrete. Preserving light, bright wines of nerello mascalese called for careful closure and rare rackings until bottling, which we did 18 months later, after a good fining to keep the wines clear and long lasting. Passopisciaro ’09 will peak after 2016.

92 Points - Wine Advocate
The 2009 Passopisciaro is impressive. Sweet red cherries, flowers and spices are some of the notes that are woven into a fabric of incomparable grace and elegance. Deceptively medium in body, the wine shows surprising density over time, with layers of fruit that build towards the harmonious, enveloping finish. Soft tannins make the Passopisciaro relatively accessible early, although it should drink well for a number of years. (Drinking 2013 – 2021)

Product size: 750ml