Il Cantante - Mount Etna, Sicily, Italy
Salvo Foti’s greatest Etnean project yet? Who can say. Yet the wines of Il Cantante - luscious, elegant, beautiful, mysterious - certainly have a place in that conversation. Mount Etna is Europe’s highest active volcano, and is home to some of the most exciting wines to explode into the international marketplace. Il Canante’s hectares on Mount Etna produce about 15,000 bottles of wine, with an additional 12,000 bottles of Nero d’Avola being produced with grapes purchased from friends in Pachino. The estate’s fruit is farmed in the traditional Etnean way, that is to say organically with no systemic chemicals, either fertilizer or pesticides. Soils, derived from ancient volcanic eruptions, are black, sandy, and richly mineral. Grape vines are trained in Albarello (Gobelet) and are planted 9,000 plants to the hectare, with traditional Chestnut stakes for support; varietals are co-planted and co-fermented. Climate on Etna is harsh - with very warm day-time temperatures dropping as much as 30 degrees during the summer, and cold, snowy winters. Il Cantante’s four primary vineyards are called Pagano (Northern and Eastern exposition at 750 meters), Cosentino (very close to Pagano, also 750 meters with Northern and Eastern exposition), Puntalazzo (at 800 meters, SE exposition), and Gabri (1200 meters, producing grapes for the Etna Bianco, orientation North). No irrigation is practiced and most of the grapevines are planted on natural rootstock. The wines vinified in the traditional way in open-top fermenters using frequent pigeage, more or less depending upon the vintage. Elevage is in a combination of Barrique and Tonneaux, 225 and 500 liter. The wines are never fined nor filtered. Everything from work in the vineyards, to harvest and vinification, is done entirely by hand.
Salvo Foti’s greatest Etnean project yet? Who can say. Yet the wines of Il Cantante - luscious, elegant, beautiful, mysterious - certainly have a place in that conversation. Mount Etna is Europe’s highest active volcano, and is home to some of the most exciting wines to explode into the international marketplace. Il Canante’s hectares on Mount Etna produce about 15,000 bottles of wine, with an additional 12,000 bottles of Nero d’Avola being produced with grapes purchased from friends in Pachino. The estate’s fruit is farmed in the traditional Etnean way, that is to say organically with no systemic chemicals, either fertilizer or pesticides. Soils, derived from ancient volcanic eruptions, are black, sandy, and richly mineral. Grape vines are trained in Albarello (Gobelet) and are planted 9,000 plants to the hectare, with traditional Chestnut stakes for support; varietals are co-planted and co-fermented. Climate on Etna is harsh - with very warm day-time temperatures dropping as much as 30 degrees during the summer, and cold, snowy winters. Il Cantante’s four primary vineyards are called Pagano (Northern and Eastern exposition at 750 meters), Cosentino (very close to Pagano, also 750 meters with Northern and Eastern exposition), Puntalazzo (at 800 meters, SE exposition), and Gabri (1200 meters, producing grapes for the Etna Bianco, orientation North). No irrigation is practiced and most of the grapevines are planted on natural rootstock. The wines vinified in the traditional way in open-top fermenters using frequent pigeage, more or less depending upon the vintage. Elevage is in a combination of Barrique and Tonneaux, 225 and 500 liter. The wines are never fined nor filtered. Everything from work in the vineyards, to harvest and vinification, is done entirely by hand.
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