Passopisciaro

The tropical menace: 2010 is just the vintage that would suggest such thing on Mount Etna, more than others ever before it, with its plump berries and generous green growth.

Nerello mascalese wine is made with a fast fermenting of the juice rather than using the skins of the grape, so looking at all that exuberance didn’t make us nervous until a thick cape of warm fog landed on top of the vineyards in mid September. It lingered and drizzled and we fought in the rows to keep the grapes healthy with all means and as long as we could.

When picking ensued we would leave patches unharvested and then we would come back to them later; this enabled us to pick until quite late – we picked in this Contrada the 29th of October.

The mild temperature helped the kind of ripening that gives a soft, non-angular wine with an unctuous fruit at its center. This year, the wine of Rampante has a purity to it, great acidity, with great lightness and durability.

Vineyard age: 100 years

Vineyard area: 1.7 hectares

Vineyard density: 8,000 vines per Ha

Vineyard altitude: 1,000 m/3,300 ft a.s.l.

Yield per hectare: 11 Hl/Ha

Fertilization: None

Spraying: Clay, propolis, sulphur, copper, grapefruit seed extract

Vinification: Alcoholic fermentation in stainless steel vats for 15 days

Aging: Malolactic fermentation followed by 18 months aging in large, neutral oak barrels

Production: 2,000 bottles