Our Wine Choice: Tornatore Etna Rosso Calderara 2019

We always discover something new when tasting wines from Italy’s Mount Etna region, and our recent session featuring several offerings from Tornatore was no exception. We had never tried their Calderara label before, so it was a first for us and turned out to be a delightful experience.

You can’t talk about Etna wines without mentioning contradas, or single vineyards. They are not only important for understanding the style and quality of any particular wine but also because they help form the Etna region’s identity. The volcanic effusions they come from are a constant on the island, helping to keep the wine scene steadily evolving.

Connoisseurs of Etna wines know Contrada Calderara as one of the top cru, with a unique type of soil – a mixture of black pumice and basalt, the result of thousands of years of lava flows and volcanic deposits.

It is also covered with large stones that add to its heat-retaining capability and give it its name  – Calderara, or caldron. All that retained heat is released during cool nights, allowing the grapes to capture the minerality of the soils, resulting in transparent and vibrant wines.

One of these is the Tornatore Etna Rosso Calderara 2019 – a pristine expression of nerello mascalese from the northern part of Etna. It has a perfumed aroma, with notes of grapefruit, brambleberries, savory spices, wild herbs and flowers. It’s also aromatic, harmonious, complex and poised.

Etna consistently delivers exceptional wines, and I’m going to continue to keep a close watch on the region and track any new releases that capture the region’s uniqueness and diversity.

– Kevin Davy, Tasting Manager