Description
Etna Rosso Calderara Sottana Bellacolonna DOC 2022
A note from Marco De Grazia about the 20th Anniversary Etna Rosso "Bellacolonna"
To honor the collective effort of the entire Tenuta delle Terre Nere team, I found it appropriate to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our first release with a unique cuvée. This cuvée should represent our appellation and our estate, and to speak somewhat of our beginnings.
Therefore, first and foremost it was to be an Etna Rosso, for this is our foremost appellation. Secondly, as our estate, winery and surrounding vineyards are within the Contrada of Calderara Sottana, which is also where we chose to have our largest extensions, the wine would be crafted from grapes from Calderara Sottana.
However, it was not to be confused with our Calderara Sottana bottling, which comes from the finest fruit of exclusively old vines chosen from all our Calderara holdings.
Thus, I chose to make a cuvée from only one exceptionally gifted vineyard in Calderara, named Bellacolonna. Chosen not only for its superlative quality, but also because it was here that, after sadly uprooting parcels of half abandoned and decrepit old vines, we planted our first vineyards in 2006 and 2007. It is from the fruit of these vines that we crafted our lovely cuvée.
It has had the privilege of coming from an exceptionally fine vineyard coupled to the good fortune of being born in an outstanding vintage.
Coincidence would have it that it was the first to be vinified at the completion of all our cellar facilities. Therefore, we could afford to craft it precisely as we wished, and we were able to dedicate our best attention to it. It has benefited from 10% new oak, (which I felt perfectly appropriate for a wine from young vines) and the selfsame ageing as our Crus.
I would say it truly has charme; more stylish than our Etna Rosso with a depth and character reminiscent of our Calderara Sottana (excepting, perhaps, the extra layers that old vines deliver). It was born elegant and will become more subtly so as it ages; possessing the weightless poise of youth and the promise of a greater finesse to come.
It is, indeed, a wine I'm very proud to have crafted, one that yearns to encompass all that is Tenuta delle Terre Nere.
-Marco De Grazia