Etna Rosso Calderara Sottana

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Single vineyard aged in large oak casks with powerful notes of dark cherry. A wine of great depth. The soils in Calderara Sottana are easily recognizable as they are the stoniest of all,  

Calderara means heat, probably born from the warmth the black stones retain and transmit back to the earth on cold nights. The terroir of the Contrada Calderara was originally from lava flows and volcano-clastic deposits related to the effusive and explosive activity of the Elliptic volcano, approximately between 60 000 and 150 000 years ago. Although very young in geological terms, the Elliptic soil is the oldest surface layer where it is possible to plant in the appellation. The reason is simple: millennia of lava flows have buried the oldest soils, leaving in fact only small and rare portions of the Elliptic soil. On the North side of the Etna there are five or six Contradas that have “elliptical terroir” but only three are “pure” and not mixed of which Calderara is one. 

The altitude varies from 600 to 700 metres, the harvest takes place in the second ten days of October. Locally Calderara and its wines enjoy an extraordinary reputation. The Calderara Sottana is the result of very old vineyards, from 60 to 100 years of age. The Calderara seems to contain an exhibit of the widest spectrum of flavours, aromas and nuances. Distinctly autumnal, spicy, it is aromatic and austere at the same time. It gives a wonderful sensation of fullness on the palate, but ineffably light.