02 — The Place
Between Monte Ilice and Monte Gorna
Trecastagni, south-eastern side of Etna. Our vineyard sits in the corridor between two extinct craters, above 700 metres.
Monte Ilice and Monte Gorna are adventive cones — side vents of the volcano, long extinct, whose eruptions helped build this part of the slope. They are the reason the land here is not one continuous hillside but a series of small, differently angled amphitheatres. Exposure, wind and the hour the sun leaves the rows change from one plot to the next.
700m+
Vineyard altitude on the south-eastern slope
Volcanic
Free-draining soils formed from Etna's lava and ash
Day / Night
Wide thermal shift at altitude, preserving acidity and aroma
Two cones
Monte Ilice and Monte Gorna shaping exposure and airflow
The two cones
Monte Ilice
A steep, near-symmetrical cone above Trecastagni, its slopes historically terraced and planted to bush-trained vines. It closes the horizon to the north of our rows.
Monte Gorna
A lower, broader cone to the south-east, among the most planted parts of this side of the mountain. Between the two, the corridor our vineyard sits in.
Trecastagni
A wine village, not a wine region in the abstract
Trecastagni has grown vines for as long as it has existed, on a side of Etna where holdings are small and often split across several plots. Working here means working at that scale — a hectare at a time, with neighbours who do the same.
