Passopisciaro

2015 was a quick and early-ripening year on Etna. It was a year of great vitality within the plants, fertilized in the well-watered soils from the rainy winter, followed by tremendous heat during the summer. The long period of rain in early October weakened the skins, with a nasty cloud hanging and dripping humidity for weeks, leaving dew every morning. The grapes began showing color, ripeness, and sweetness quite, while maintaining their searing acidity, bringing advanced ripening across our vineyards.

The rains brought with them mold and other problems, so to keep them healthy, we returned again to the vineyards after our green harvest and began to pick out the unhealthy grapes from each bunch, one by one. Because of the altitude, we were able to wait longer for the higher vines to come about, due to the cold, the sparser bunches, and lots of propolis to keep them healthy. We picked in this contrada on October 18th.

The nerello wines from this vintage are good: mineral, salty, varietal wines. The vintage is not like 2012, not like 2014, but nonetheless a complete and structured picture of Mount Etna, with a good skeleton, high acidity, and low alcohol.

Vineyard age: 90 years

Vineyard area: 1 hectare

Vineyard density: 8,000 vines per hectare

Vineyard altitude: 850 m/2,800 ft above sea level

Yield per hectare: 20 Hl/Ha

Spraying: Propolis, clay, grapefruit seed extract

Harvest: 18 October

Vinification: Alcoholic fermentation in stainless steel vats for 15 days

Aging: 18 months aging in large, neutral oak barrels

Bottling: waning moon of April 2017

Production: 1,950 bottles