Etna Rosso, Calderara Sottana, 2011

Full bodied, corpulent and with plenty of backbone. A mighty wine, hearty but hugely seductive flavours of dark chocolate, spice, stone, earth and ripe forest and hedgerow berry fruits. This is a relatively ‘low’ vineyard, by Etna’s standards at least, planted at 700 metres above sea level. The vines are old and part pre-phylloxera. As of the 2006 vintage, Calderara is being made in the same way as the other Crus, including severe green harvests and pruning which has led to half the yields that were the norm pre-2006.