There are several spots around the world producing sparkling wines every bit as good as Champagne at a fraction of the typical Champagne price. One of the places you might not have thought of is Mount Etna on the island of Sicily, but I’m here (again) to tell you: The Champagne-method wines of the Scammacca del Murgo family are some of the greatest value-for-dollar wines you’ll ever have the pleasure to drink.
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. That’s not just a good value: That’s a rim-rattling, backboard-shattering slam-dunk of a value. Having previously offered its rosé sibling, today we have what is essentially a
blanc de noirs of Nerello Mascalese, the noble native grape of the Mount Etna region and a variety repeatedly compared to Pinot Noir. On those rare occasions when we offer a non-Champagne sparkler on this site, we make sure to make it count, and believe me—for those sparkling wine occasions when a gentler price point makes more sense, you won’t find better than this!
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 bona-fide 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 6 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 a classic
fritto misto for a very festive, sunny, upbeat start to a great meal. Hopefully soon, it’ll include good friends, too. Enjoy!
