2021 Graci Etna Rosso Sicily 750 ml

What Angelo Gaja is to Piedmont, what Antinori is to Tuscany, Alberto Graci is to Sicily—specifically, the revered black volcanic soils of Mount Etna. 

The “Graci name is tightly linked to Etna excellence,” wrote Wine Advocate. Mount Etna is where, at an elevation of 1,000 feet, he farms some of the highest Nerello Mascalese vines on the volcano, and makes one of the most stirring and unique red wines you’ll ever taste. Grown on own-rooted, century-old vines, the 2021 Graci Etna Rosso is plummy and perfumed, medium-bodied and beautifully balanced, like a cross between Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo. 

Graci’s talents are celebrated all over Italy and beyond: The wines are regulars on Michelin-starred wine lists like Eleven Madison Park and The Village Pub. Even Barbaresco icon Angelo Gaja turned to Graci when he wanted to establish a joint venture on Sicily.

Making wine on Etna is risky in many ways. The active volcano poses a real and constant threat of eruption, which requires a different outlook on life altogether. Graci, as quoted by New York Times’ Eric Asimov, responds to the threat nonchalantly: “Lava? We are fatalists,” he said. “We don’t care. It’s normal for us.” 

Etna’s highly complex soils, a mixture of lava flows and ash, allow indigenous grapes like Nerello Mascalese to deliver what Graci calls “a balance between elegance and rusticity” that is hard to find anywhere else. In Sicily’s outstanding 2021 vintage, he produced a complex, elegant and silky Rosso that bristles with freshly crushed rose petals and red cherries, orange peels, and red plums. It’s round and satisfyingly sappy, with the tannin and acid structure to make for fine drinking over the next decade.