Nerello Mascalese, Etna, Lu Veru Piaciri, Al-Cantàra 2023
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Why this wine
Etna's volcanic slopes give Nerello Mascalese a lightness and savour that has more in common with northern Italy than with the Mediterranean, and Al-Cantàra farms a single 15-hectare site at 620 metres to make it. Four years of ageing in steel, barrel and bottle before release, at a price that has not yet caught up with the region's reputation.
At a glance
- Grape
- Nerello Mascalese
- Region
- Sicily, Italy
- Alcohol
- 14.50%
- Body
- Light
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- Medium
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Short (3-5 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Poultry & Pork, Pasta, Cheese
How it tastes
Red cherry and wild berry fruit with delicate cinnamon and wild herbs behind it. Fresh and approachable, light in weight, with soft, fine-grained tannins and a savoury volcanic edge to the finish. Nerello Mascalese 100%.
The producer
Al-Cantàra sits at Randazzo on the slopes of Mount Etna and takes its name from the river that runs through the town; in Arabic the word also means bridge, which the estate reads as the link between wine, art and poetry. The 15-hectare vineyard lies at 620 metres, where warm days and cool nights stretch ripening out and hold on to acidity, and the espalier-trained, spur-pruned vines grow in volcanic soil rich in minerals, fossils and pumice; treatments are limited to sulphur and copper, with pheromones used against vine moth. Fermentation ran on the skins for 10 to 12 days at 25°C with a further five days of maceration after it, then half the wine spent two years in stainless steel and half a year in barriques and tonneaux followed by a year in steel, with twelve months in bottle before release. Owner Pucci Giuffrida names every wine after a poem by a Sicilian author.
Food and drinking
Serve at 14 to 16°C. It goes with roast pork, grilled lamb chops, pasta alla Norma or a semi-hard pecorino. Drinking well now and will hold for five to ten years; an hour in a decanter opens it up. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.