2023 Tenuta delle Terre Nere Rosso San Lorenzo

San Lorenzo is one of Tenuta delle Terre Nere’s most serious crus – a high, stony vineyard on Etna’s northern slope where Nerello Mascalese grows deep-rooted and low-yielding in fractured lava and ash. It’s a site that gives wines with both weight and focus, and the 2023 release is another reminder of why it’s one of the great red terroirs in Sicily.

The season was mild and even, which helped deliver fruit with perfect balance and definition. Everything here is done by hand: gentle harvest, native yeast fermentation, and ageing in neutral oak so nothing gets in the way of the vineyard’s natural voice.

The wine is powerful but not loud. Red and black fruits, wild herbs and a little smoky mineral note carry through a palate that’s long, structured and finely tuned. The tannins are compact and silky, pulling the flavours into perfect shape. It’s a wine that speaks quietly but with absolute confidence – unmistakably Etna, unmistakably Terre Nere.

"Terre Nere’s wines all possessed unbelievable freshness and complexity as well as huge perfumes that suggested Pinot Noir…These wines are astonishingly complex and ethereal efforts from the hillsides of Mt. Etna in Sicily."
- Robert Parker