To walk the vineyards at Romeo del Castello is to step back in time. This is one of the most picturesque and memorable small family estates in Italy. Clinging thousands of feet high up on Sicily’s Mount Etna—a still active volcano—an appropriately brilliant and beautiful young woman, Chiara Vigo, tends to her family’s 100+ year old oak trees and grapevines. There is even a gnarled old olive tree that is over 1,000 years old. These ancient relics are made all the more impressive when one realizes that the property sits dead center in Mount Etna’s lava flow. In 1981, a particularly destructive eruption tore threw the family’s property and wiped out 65% of the vineyards, leaving only ash and hardened lava. Fortunately, a few acres of the family’s oldest Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio vines were spared and today they produce the estate’s top wine, “Vigo.”
Tucked between tentacles of hardened lava, the century-old vines that remain at this vineyard site are farmed with fanatical care and attention to detail. Chiara uses no herbicides or pesticides, ever, and she nurtures these vines into their twilight years with only organic methods and fertilizers. This is a pristine and visually stunning vineyard site that deserves to be mentioned alongside the great Crus of the world. In the cellar Chiara employs a masterful and light touch. Fermentation on skins is carried out in stainless steel tanks for 12 days before aging in 225 liter neutral French oak barrels. There is no filtering, and a very small amount of sulfites are added only at bottling in some vintages—and in other particularly outstanding years, the wine does not see the addition of sulfites, at all. This is as pure as winemaking can get and the results of Chiara’s confident and informed cellar skills are nothing short of stunning.
The first thing that must be said about the 2012 Romeo del Castello “Vigo” is that it is a world class wine that deserves every accolade it has received. This is easily one of the finest and most nuanced bottles I’ve ever enjoyed from Mount Etna. It has a dark crimson core moving into garnet and slight orange reflections on the rim. The wine’s aromatics and palate are deep and brooding at first, but there is a finesse and delicate beauty coexisting with the power. On one hand there are mountain flowers, red fruit, and all the ethereal detail one might seek in top Nuits-Saint-Georges, but there is also dark cherry, volcanic ash and the restrained power for which Etna is known. It is as if Chiara Vigo has taken a bottle of Grand Cru Burgundy and filtered it through the lava that surrounds her house. I strongly recommend stashing away a few bottles of this wine so you can revisit it over the next decade, but it is 100% ready to drink today. To serve, decant the wine for 30 minutes and pour into large Burgundy stems. This bottle has more than enough complexity and intrigue on its own—it does not require busy or labor-intensive cuisine to shine. Lamb chops or a hangar steak grilled medium rare over high heat would be perfect. Enjoy the food, but focus on this incredible wine! Cheers.
