FIRE, WATER, SALT & AIR - Ancient Wine Making in Sicily’s Etna Region
Wine making on the Sicilian terrain of Mount Etna tells a story about humans’ relationship to a land that is at once generous and hostile. First introduced by the Greeks, then refined and cultivated by the Romans, vineyards scatter the lower slopes of the looming volcano, exposed to an unique combination of minerals, sun, and salt laden air. Here, with enough care, grape vines can thrive for centuries. The original Etnaen winemakers coexisted with the ferocity and wonders of nature’s forces, applying a transcendental approach to nurturing grapes that is rooted in a profound respect for the environment and all the lives and grows endemically within it. Today, after waves of political and social upheaval, this philosophy lives on through the devotion and work of I Vigneri, a consortium of local winemakers lead by oenologist Salvo Foti. Foti has cultivated several vineyards throughout the years including overseeing a holistic system of grape growing and wine production for I Custodi dell Vigne dell’Etna where owner Mario Paoluzi entrusted his team with the task of revitalizing the land by returning to ancient winemaking practices.
Wandering through Paoluzi’s vineyards, the wild presence of grape vines in expressive, twisted forms surrounded by walls made of lava stones sets a primordial scene. From a distance, Etna’s peak gazes down, bestowing plumes of smoke. Using the Alberello method adopted by the Romans, old grapes grow in close proximity to young ones, held up by sticks made from endemic chestnut trees. No mechanization is used with the exception of a soil till and all grapes are cared for by hand.
Grape plants are treated as though they were people, in I Vigneri’s words - “like any population, where all the stages of man’s life, and all the various cultural and social aspects are represented, so, too, in our vineyards, the different varieties thrive together. Each brings something valuable to the whole and together they create a unique and typical wine.” Paoluzi explains “This is kind of like an open museum, we have some wines here over 200 years old.” In Etna, there are three native varieties: Nerello Mascalarese, Nerello Cappuccio, and then a white, Chariccante. Paoluzi’s vineyard grows all three but also has others that are over a hundred years old, such as Grenache, left behind from the Spanish and French in the 1900s. On the periphery of the vineyard is an elaborate ecosystem where wild flowers, plants, trees, and insects
