Ciao Tutti!
This weekend at Piazza Italian Market we will taste a new Rosato we are considering for our collection, the Etna DOC ($20.50) from the Cottanera Winery in Castiglione di Sicilia, a city in the Province of Catania. The winery is located near Mt. Etna, the highest mountain south of the Alps and the largest and most active volcano in Italy. Residents live in its shadow in a mix of reverence and fear.
The ancient Greeks believed Mount Etna was the forge where both the god Hephaestus and the Cyclops Polyphemus toiled daily making thunderbolts for Zeus. They also attributed the mountain’s shape to Athena, who cast out the giant Typhon in the War of the Giants. However malevolent Mount Etna can be, her northeastern slope is ideal for growing the red grape Nerello Mascalese and on the east slope, the white grape Carricante thrives. The ideal conditions are a large diurnal swings of temperature, the volcanic soil that contains lava, rock and volcanic ash. This soil also saved the vines from decimation from phylloxera, that swept through most of Continental Europe, since the pest cannot survive in volcanic soil that is mostly sand.
Cottanera vineyard with “Pyramid of Etna”
Cottanera’s vineyards are dotted with piles of lava stone shaped to a point that were christened the “Pyramids of Etna”. Local farmers constructed these shapes from stones that had been displaced and laid them in a dry stack technique. The history of the Cottanera Winery began in 1962 when Francesco Cambria left his previous career in Messina to purchase 100 hectares of vineyards and groves of hazelnuts near his birthplace of Randazzo. He initially sold his grapes to a local cooperative but in 1968 his focus was producing grapes for bulk wine. In the late 1980’s, his sons Gugliemo and Enzo built a winery to produce their own wine from Sicily’s indigenous grapes Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio and Carriante that grew to a total of eleven different labels including red, white, rose, and sparkling wines. They christened their venture “Cottanere” (Black Cottage) for the ancient village of the same name that was located along the banks of the Alcantara River, next to the family’s vineyards.
Their Rosato Etna DOC is 100% Nerello Mascalese, from one of their vineyards on Mt. Etna’s north slope. One wine writer, whose opinion I trust, describes it as “bursting with floral notes of iris, wisteria and rose, paired with the freshness of aromatic herbs. This is a rich, complex, flavorful wine that embodies the typical characteristics of the volcanic soil from which it comes”.
Come join me Friday from noon to 5:45 or Saturday from noon to 4:45 to see if you agree!
Cin Cin!
Jenn
Piazza Italian Market is located in the Talbot Town Shopping Center, 218 N. Washington St., suite 23, in Easton, MD.
Contributor Jennifer Martella has pursued dual careers in architecture and real estate since she moved to the Eastern Shore in 2004. She has reestablished her architectural practice for residential and commercial projects and is a real estate agent for Meredith Fine Properties. She especially enjoys using her architectural expertise to help buyers envision how they could modify a potential property. Her Italian heritage led her to Piazza Italian Market, where she hosts wine tastings every Friday and Saturday afternoons.
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