Heading from the scruffy, coastal city of Catania in Sicily’s North-Eastern corner, a gentle winding drive up the broad circumference of Mount Etna takes you through towns whose faded grandeur is testament to a bygone era of great prosperity. Like a wisp of cigarette smoke, you soon see a small cloud floating above the majestic summit of the volcano, which, even in early summer, has not yet shed its white mantle of snow.

On Mount Etna

One of the first things to strike you about the region is how fertile the surrounding countryside is. Host to a polyculture of orchards, berry fruits, figs, hazelnut and chestnut trees and of course vineyards, there is a special wild beauty in its colourful blooms of poppies and dandelions, its thistle, fennel and perfumed yellow broom. Yet it’s impossible to forget that like an irascible giant, Etna has blown its top spectacularly and often with devastating consequences.

The effects of Etna’s pyroclastic flows are visible in the many scatterings of dark boulders and lava scree strewn across fields close to the roadside. Destructive and productive at the same time, the taming of Etna’s natural power is evident in the sombre stone of pavement flagstones and buildings and the drystone walls that form horizontal vineyard terraces on the gentle slopes of the mountainside.

Given Etna’s unique terrain, it’s hardly surprising that its forte is not so much in international as in native grape varieties. Grown at altitude on Etna’s slopes, nerello mascalese and carricante are quality local grapes capable of producing reds and whites respectively of remarkable flavour and structure.

In Randazzo, Mount Etna

Nerello mascalese (the black grape of Mascoli), sometimes with nerello cappuccio in minor key, is responsible for pale red wines with beguiling perfumes, sensual wild red berry and sour cherry fruit flavours not a million miles from pinot noir or nebbiolo. Its sweet spot lies between the two roads of Quota 600 and Quota Mille, respectively at 600 and 1000 metres, that link Linguaglossa and Randazzo.

Carricante is its refreshing, zesty, bone dry, often saline white counterpart. Both grapes derive their structure, biting acidity and minerality from Etna’s sandy, volcanic soils, its Mediterranean-influenced, continental climate and, as often as not, its many ancient, pre-phylloxera, bush vines.

With the help of the oenologist Salvo Foti, Giuseppe Benanti, who ran the family pharmaceutical company in nearby Catania, pioneered the new Etna in 1988 by restoring the family’s abandoned Etna vineyards and introducing modern winemaking techniques with his dry white wine, Pietramarina.

In Passopisciaro on the slopes of Etna, Giuseppe Russo took over the running of the estate in 2004 when his father died, maintaining the family name Giralomo Russo. The previous owners of the cellar he occupies were wine merchants. The area was always considered the best for red wines which would be transported in bulk directly to the port. That was then and much has changed with some 65 – 70 producers of Etna wine today, mostly small, some tiny.

From almost 15 hectares scattered around different areas between 670 and 750 metres, Russo brings in small quantities at a time as he gets to know each vineyard parcel individually,. ‘As in all older vineyards’, says Russo, ‘one of the reasons you get richness and complexity in the older vines is because they’re part of a field blend’. He makes four reds, three of them, Feudo, San Lorenzo and Feudi di Mezzo, excellent wines made from 60-year-old vines, some even older.

Starting 10 years ago in Solicchiata at between 600 – 900 metres above sea level on the northern slopes of Etna within the district of the hilltown Castiglione di Sicilia, Michele Faro of Pietradolce resurrected the tradition of winemaking started by his grandfather on Etna’s stony, light, sandy loam soils. Etna’s popularity is growing, says Faro, as Italians are starting to discover it.

Old Vines, Pietradolce, Mount Etna

‘Etna is a region within a region and is a world apart from with the rest of Sicily. With its minerality, its acidity and its elegance, Etna is a different planet. Sometimes it’s difficult to explain because when people think of Sicilian wine, they think of alcohol, power and structure, but Etna is different. Despite the outside investors, it’s still about the terroir’.

In addition to local companies such as Benanti, Planeta, Tasca d’Almerita and Cusumano, well-heeled newcomers who came in search of a fresh challenge from 2000 onwards included the flamboyant Florentine wine merchant, Marc de Grazia, wine with his property Tenuta delle Terre Nere, the intense Belgian, Frank Cornelissen, with his high altitude Magma red, and the dynamic Andrea Franchetti from Rome, whose property Passopisciaro takes its name from the local village.

The boom brought a steady stream of newcomers, among them Peter Wiegner, a Swiss entrepreneur, Mick Hucknall of the rock band Simply Red with his wine, Il Cantante, and, one of the most impressive of all, Tuscany’s Silvia Maestrelli at Tenuta di Fessina. Her two dry whites made from carricante, Musmeci and a’Puddara, are both outstanding, while her top red, Musmeci, made from 90 – 100 years-old nerello mascalese vines, is mesmerising.

Barbabecchi

One of Etna’s most extraordinary vineyards is Alberto Graci’s Barbabecchi vineyard. At 1000 metres above sea level, this uneconomical monument to a former era produces just 100 bottles of wine from 6000 ancient bush vines scattered higgledy-piggledy on vineyard terraces among grass, bushes and wild flowers. The 2011 Barbabecchi, with its intense wild dark berry fruits flavours is like a halfway house between great Barolo and red Burgundy.

At this dizzying height, with spectacular views over the Ionian Sea, you begin to realise that with its unique aspect, altitude, old vines and volcanic soils, the haunting, terrible beauty of Etna is indeed all about a very special terroir. You begin to comprehend why, despite the many challenges of such a mysterious and dangerous force of nature, growers, wine lovers and tourists alike are drawn to the magnet of the magic mountain.

Cottanera

Wines to Try

White and Rosé

2013 Graci Etna Bianco.

Lively, bright and aromatic with, fresh, fragrant lemony, notes of spring blossom, and a succulently juicy fresh citrusy fruit quality with whose zesty acidity leads into bone dry finish and slightly salty mineral character. £16.54 - £17.82, The Drink Shop, AG Wines, The Sampler, Harvey Nichols.

2012 Terrazze dell' Etna Ciuri Etna Bianco

Aromatic, smoky dry white made from a blend of nerello mascalese (vinified as a white) plus 15 Carricante whose tight, mouthwatering quince and citrusy fruit finishes with excellent, bone dry salinity. Around £19.99, Charlie Crown, Bath, Grape & Grind, Bristol, Corks Out, Cheshire, Auriol Wines, The Fine Wine Company, Edinburgh

2012 Planeta Carricante Eruzione 1614

After planting on Etna and establishing a winery here, the excellent Sicilian operation of Planeta have done a fine job with the carricante grape in bringing out its tongue-tingling Granny Smith bite and minerally finish. £17.50, Great Western Wine.

2012 Tenuta di Fessina a’ Puddara Etna Bianco

From 900 metres above sea level and Silvia Maestrelli’s 60 years old vineyard, this pale, intense carricante shows an aromatic note of lemon thyme with deep, richly concentrated appley fruit, a touch of zesty sweetness and lively citrusy bite on a bone dry, mineral finish. £28, Petersham Cellar.

Silvia Maestrelli

2013 Pietradolce Archeneri Etna Bianco.

Lovely fragrant fresh delicately floral nose, with a touch of grapefruit, almost albariño-like, intense grapefruity flavours with fine delicately textured and zesty-fresh vibrancy, finishing with a bone dry, austere minerality that makes it ideal for shellfish. £18.95 - £22.99, Four Walls Wine, Hic Wines, Invinity Wines, Cape London.

2013 Pietradolce Etna Rosato.

Made from nerello mascalese, this is pa ale, delicate onion-skin in colour, with lively fresh berry fruit nose, an attractive touch of redcurrant sweetness and juicy mouthfeel with a vivid bone dry finish and a touch of saltiness. £14.50 - £15.99, Hic Wines, Exel Wines, Cape London.

2013 Graci Etna Rosato

A pale salmon pink nerello mascalese, this is a full-bodied Italian rosé with an underpinning of cherryish fruit etched with Etna’s typically incisive fresh bite. £16.95, Berry Bros & Rudd

Reds

2009 Passopisciaro, IGT Sicilia.

Perfumed red berry fruit fragrance infused with herbal spice and pepper and sweet mulberry fruit and a texture of firm taut tannins closer to nebbiolo than pinot noir, with a mineral quality that acts as a balancing counterpoint to the sweet berry fruit. £29.95, Corney & Barrow (2010 also available and magnums ion both vintages at £60.00).

2010 Terrazze dell' Etna Cirneco Etna Rosso

This is a bright, intensely aromatic red made from nerello mascalese with herbal, cherry and spiced plum notes and a purity and bracing tautness to the concentrated sour cherry fruit of this very individual, terroir wine. £31.99, Planet of the Grapes.

2013 Pietradolce Etna Rosso

Pale in colour, with a raspberryish pinot noir-esque and a touch of smokiness and plenty of underlying mulberry fruit supported by robust tannins and tautly grippy acidity: wild berries and herbs spring to mind. £17.49-99, Cape London, Armit.

Alberto Graci

2012 Tenuta di Fessina Erse, Etna Rosso

A blend of mainly nerello mascalase with 17% nerello capuccio and a small amount of white grapes in the vineyard carricante and minella, this Etna Rosso has a spicy wild cherryish perfume and an earthy, warm, red berry fruit quality with mulberry-like bite that’s seamlessly pure with a juicy succulence and fine balance. £18.99, Woodford Wine Room.

2011 Cottanera Etna Rosso

Bright primary mulberry and strawberry with a hint of wild gameyness and juicy fresh mulberryish bite to the fruit which is sweetly succulent and juicy in red berry mould supported by a trenchant blade of refreshing acidity and framed by polished oak on the finish. £12.05, www.winebear.com.

2008 Tenuta di Fessina Musmeci.

Good rich cherryish colour, perfumed with wild cherry and spice, lovely earthy warm quality, lovely richness of red berry fruits with a warm and earthy spiciness, great depth of fruit and fine backbone of acidity and that mineral quality that keeps it fresh and intense and beautifully balanced. £26.67, bottle/ case of 6, Christopher Keiller.

2011 Vigna Barbagalli, Pietradolce, Etna DOC Rosso.

Pale, evolved, nebbiolo-like hue, lovely wild berry fruit fragrance, fraise des bois, spice, pepper notes, lovely seductively juicy yet intense sweetly ripe strawberry and wild fraise des bois on the palate, initially silky and glossy textured before turning into something a little wilder with its fresh nip of acidity and fine tannins and mineral finish. £49.66, Armit (in bond).

Something for The Weekend

Night In

2012 Nero di Troia

A black beauty from the southern Italian heel of Puglia, the nero di troia grape produces a vivid red of smooth-textured ripe dark fruitiness with a refreshingly lipsmacking damsony finish that’s perfect for washing down tomato-based pasta and pizza. £6.99, Morrisons.

Dinner Party

2013 Saint Clair Winemaker's Blend Chardonnay

While this stylish Kiwi chardonnay boasts plenty of opulently ripe peachy fruit underpinned by a gentle touch of toasty oak, it delivers a complementary, citrus-zesty mouthful of attractive grapefruity freshness in New Zealand meets Chablis mould. £15.99, Waitrose Cellar.

Splash Out

2010 Gigondas Domaine Grand Romane Cuvée Prestige, Amadieu

Behind the sweet and pepper-spicy aromatics, there’s a richly textured yet cleansingly fresh blueberry fruitiness tinged with herb and powered by a sinewy, muscular grip. Around £23.35, The Good Wine Shop, L’Art du Vin, Weavers of Nottingham.