SommSelect Editorial Director David Lynch is back with a tiny parcel of one of the greatest expressions of Etna Rosso on the market today.
I’m old enough to remember Orson Welles in those Paul Masson television ads, proclaiming that they would “…sell no wine before its time.” Well, I’m sorry to tell you this, but most of the wine in the world is sold—and consumed—before its time. It’s an economic reality that we romantics have trouble facing: During my many years in the restaurant business, I saw many of the world’s greatest wines “pre-sold” by their importers, put onto wine lists immediately upon their arrival, and greedily guzzled in their still-fragile, gangly youth. Infanticide? I saw plenty, which is why I was so pleased to receive a small, ‘end-of-vintage’ parcel of Girolamo Russo’s magnificent “San Lorenzo” Etna Rosso 2012. Its importer, no doubt to his own chagrin, has ‘newer’ vintages of this wine to sell. Well, I am more than happy to sell (and drink) this one: It is a single-vineyard Etna wine of the highest caliber, and only now is it starting to show off its full range of expression.
By now, our subscribers should be more than familiar with the phenomenon that is Etna—the still-erupting volcano in eastern Sicily that is also home to some of the most exciting wines in the world right now. Etna’s summit is about 11,000 feet, while the majority of its vineyards are planted between 1,500 and 3,500 feet (making them some of the highest-elevation vineyards in Europe). These cooler altitudes, along with Etna’s mineral-rich, black volcanic soils, help compensate for Sicily’s near-complete dryness during the wine-growing season: Vineyards on Etna are steep terraces are planted mostly in the “bush-trained” style (called alberello, or “little tree,” in Italian), so that grape clusters are protected from harsh winds and roots are able to dig deep for moisture. One of the most strangely beautiful sights in all of wine is that of a vineyard full of gnarled old alberelli strewn with large black pumice stones from a previous sciare (lava flow). As many have remarked, it has the look of a lunar surface.
Girolamo Russo is one of the great artisan producers on Etna (a place that has lately been overrun with larger wine firms looking for a piece of this celebrated terroir). Born on Etna, he was a classically trained pianist and music teacher/theorist before returning to his family farm after his father died in 2003. He farms his family 15 hectares of vines organically, and bottles several single-vineyard reds from Nerello Mascalese, Burgundy-style. Most of Russo’s plots are in and around Randazzo, a village thought of as one of the “Grand Crus” of Etna’s prized north slope. “San Lorenzo,” his largest and highest-elevation single vineyard (sitting at about 750 meters), is the source of this wine, which is consistently the most perfumed, ‘Burgundian’ bottling in the Russo lineup. It is predominantly comprised of Nerello Mascalese, with a small amount of the supporting grape, Nerello Cappuccio, and is aged for 18 months in French oak barrels, of which only a small percentage are new. Only about 300-400 cases of the wine are produced in any given year.
In the glass, the 2012 “San Lorenzo” is a translucent crimson red extending to the rim, with an assertive nose melding ripe strawberry, currant, and blood orange with a hint of violet, baking spice, lots of ‘forest floor’ bramble, and dusty, smoky minerality. Medium-plus in body and framed by both bright acidity and firm tannins, it still has potential to age, tantalizing as it may be now. If it were me—actually, it
will be me—I’d drink one now and lose the other two for a few more years, as the aromatic intrigue of this wine is only going to increase with time. If you’re drinking one now, decant it about 30 minutes before serving at 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems. The first thing I think of when I smell this wine is a classic Sicilian
caponata, and we’re just about in the prime season for it. I can’t wait.
Cin-Cin! — D.L.
