MCF Rare Wine

An Etna Ideal 

My friend texted me a picture of a bottle the other day with the caption, 'You know this?'

'Oh yeah, that's great stuff!' I replied.

"Grab me a case if you can get it.'

It was a picture of the lovely Etna Rosso I Nove Fratelli 2019 of Messeria del Pino, a tiny producer whose mere two hectares in the Contrada del Pino, produce this charmingly rusting, yet deeply profound Rosso that's so very quintessentially 'Etna'.  It’s a wine I’d been circling around for a while, and this gave me a reason to finally pull the trigger on it.

It might be the hottest real estate in wine, but the real spirit of Etna’s hallowed ground will, for me, always be embodied by the smaller, farmer-producers like Cesare Fulvio and Federica Turillo, the couple who left city life and returned to Cesare's family farm, and began to revive it.  

Seeing a picture of them in their vineyards, or in their winery, with their old vats called Palmento, that are carved from the volcanic stone,  and 'spirit' is the only word that comes to mind.  There's a visceral realness to what they do, and that same sense of realness is what animates the wine. 

The fermentation takes place in these palmento, with native yeasts and a maceration of two weeks.  The juice is then transferred to old tonneaux for a year before bottling. 

The story goes that once they realized that they couldn't drink all 3000 bottles (yes, tiny) of their annual production, they began selling it to friends and local shops, and we're lucky enough that some of it now makes it here to NYC! 

If you asked me to picture in my mind what the platonic ideal of ultra traditional Etna would taste like, this one certainly has a strong case.  The soft, red, rosy fruits almost pulse with the smoky, mineral, earthy elements you expect, and are presented with such a wonderfully honest, unpretentious disposition, that you can't help but fall in love with the wine. 

White I certainly believe there can and should be a spectrum of styles in all wine regions, this is, for me, exactly what I want from Etna. 

My Etna ideal...

So, my friend already nailed down one of the cases...but you should seriously consider getting in on what's left...

MASSERIA del PINO

Etna Rosso I Nove Fratelli 2019

You may order by emailing info@mcf-rarewine.com or calling 212.255.8870.

Matt Franco

MCF Rare Wine, Ltd

249 West 13th Street NYC 10011

212.255.8870