Although our holiday celebrations will be severely curtailed this year, it’s still a good time to remind everyone that there are a few spots around the world producing sparkling wines every bit as good as Champagne at a fraction of the typical Champagne price. One of those places is Mount Etna on the island of Sicily, where the Scammacca del Murgo family makes perhaps the best example of them all. This blanc de noirs-style sparkler from the native Nerello Mascalese grape continues to be a shocking, double-take kind of value. It comes from where now? And what grape? The standard reaction is a stunned “wow,” followed by another sip.
We all know that “real” Champagne is expensive not just because of great marketing but because of the labor-intensive way it is made—and yet, despite crafting their wines in the exact same manner as their Champagne counterparts, including leaving wines to age on their lees for more than two years, the Murgos still manage to get this impeccable sparkler to you at $29. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating—that’s incredible. Rarely if ever does a noble grape, a great terroir, and precision craftsmanship come together like this at this price. For occasions large or small, Murgo is poised to steal the show!
What’s also interesting to note about the Murgo sparklers is that they have a long track record of excellence. As we’ve noted in previous offers, the Scammaca del Murgo family is one of the longest-tenured wine producers on Mount Etna. Baron Emanuele Scammaca del Murgo, a longtime Italian diplomat, decided to re-dedicate his family’s property to wine production back in 1981, a time when Etna wine was little talked-about—most of what was produced from the ancient vineyards here was sold to cooperatives for bulk wine. In the eighties, there were maybe a half-dozen serious commercial producers in the area, but of course, it’s been a bonafide gold rush since then; these days there are well over 100 producers of Etna wine, with larger Sicilian wine concerns and others from outside the zone clamoring to get a piece of the action.
The still-erupting Etna volcano is among the few pockets of Europe untouched by phylloxera, and its soils of black ash and pumice stone are planted mostly with old, head-trained bush vines called alberelli (“little trees”). Vineyard altitudes on the volcano reach up to 1,000 meters, making it some of the highest-elevation viticulture in Europe and the only ‘cool’ region of Sicily, which otherwise has more in common with North Africa than much of mainland Italy when it comes to climate. Nerello Mascalese, the driving force of Etna reds, has rightly invited comparisons to Pinot Noir from Burgundy, and, as expressed in sparkling form, it delivers a great mix of bright fruit and smoky savor.
Sourcing 100% Nerello Mascalese from their high-altitude vineyards in Zafferana Etnea, on the eastern slopes of the volcano—a less populous area of wine production compared to the more densely planted north slope—the Murgos separate this “black” grape’s juice from its skins and produce the wine in the exact same manner as Champagne (método classico is the Italian term for ‘Champagne method,’ wherein the second fermentation creating the effervescence is carried out in the bottle). This wine was aged on its lees (the spent yeast cells that collect in the neck of the bottle) for two years before it was disgorged and re-corked for sale.
Murgo’s Brut, like its Rosé, is always a vintage-dated wine, and it consistently delivers the kind of structure and sensation you’d expect from a grower Champagne costing twice as much. This isn’t Prosecco, with its softer mousse and peachy fruit; this is deeply mineral, structured blanc de noirs with all the biscuit/bread dough notes that come with long lees aging (three years in this case). In the glass, it’s a pale straw-gold with a slight coppery cast, with aromas of Pink Lady apple, salted lemon, white cherry, sandalwood, white pepper, and a hint of smoke (maybe that’s just the volcanic pumice soils). Fine and firm and bone-dry—the dosage (sugar addition) at bottling is under six grams per liter—this is everything one could want in a refreshing, savory, food-friendly sparkler. Given that Sicily has perhaps the greatest seafood culture in Italy, I’d suggest serving this in all-purpose white wine stems with fried chicken, one of the trendiest (and most decadent) sparkling wine pairings around. If you haven’t tried it yet, now’s the time! Enjoy!
