Italy · Etna

Carranco

A joint venture between Barolo house Borgogno and Etna native Cantina Tornatore, farming eight hectares of old-vine Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, and Carricante in Contrada Carranco on Etna's north slope since 2018.

The producer

Borgogno, the historic Barolo house owned by the Farinetti family, and Francesco Tornatore of Cantina Tornatore jointly acquired Villa dei Baroni in Contrada Carranco in July 2018, bringing twenty hectares of northern Etna into a single cross-regional collaboration. The estate sits at 500 metres in Pietra Marina, Castiglione di Sicilia, with eight hectares of vineyard planted to Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, and Carricante, all native to the volcano. Vines are fifty to sixty years old. The cellar is an eighteenth-century palmento with basalt-lined tanks, still in active use alongside concrete, oak barrels, and terracotta.

Six wines are produced, around 35,000 bottles a year, split between the Villa dei Baroni estate tier and single-parcel bottlings from Contrada Carranco, the northernmost and rockiest sector of the property. That parcel is planted entirely to bush-trained vines on narrow basalt terraces, and its wines, a 100% Carricante white and a Nerello Mascalese red labelled RV rather than Riserva, reflect Borgogno's approach to oak: calibrated to what each vintage actually needs, not fixed to a minimum the appellation requires.

Known for

Single-contrada Nerello Mascalese (Etna Rosso RV) and Carricante (Etna Bianco Contrada Carranco) from bush-trained, fifty-to-sixty-year-old vines on basalt terraces in the estate's northernmost parcel.

Notable facts

The story

The Initials On The Label

Carranco's top red from Contrada Carranco does not carry the word Riserva on its label. It carries two initials: RV. The estate set the range up from the beginning with a clear position on oak: Nerello Mascalese from the northernmost basalt-rock parcel behaves differently vintage to vintage, sometimes needing less time in wood, sometimes integrating faster or slower depending on what the fruit brought in from those terraces. Etna DOC rules for a Riserva designation require a minimum ageing period regardless of what the wine in any given barrel actually needs that year. Carranco chose to age each vintage for as long as the estate judged it necessary and to skip the designation entirely rather than ageing past the point of benefit to earn a category on the label. The two letters on the black bottle are what that decision looks like from the outside.

From the atlas

Carranco

At A Glance

LocationContrada Carranco, Pietra Marina, Castiglione di Sicilia, northern Etna
Elevation500 metres
GrapesNerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, Carricante
Founded2018
Vineyard8 hectares
Production35,000 bottles across six wines
CellarConcrete, 225-litre oak barrels, terracotta; eighteenth-century palmento

The Producer

In July 2018, Borgogno, the historic Barolo house owned by the Farinetti family, and Francesco Tornatore, whose Cantina Tornatore had farmed the north slope of Etna for years, jointly signed for Villa dei Baroni in Contrada Carranco. The deal covered twenty hectares of vineyards and olive groves on the volcanic north side of Castiglione di Sicilia. The estate already had everything they needed: fifty-to-sixty-year-old vines, an eighteenth-century palmento with its original basalt-lined tanks still in use, and some of the most valued land on the volcano's northern arc.

They named the project Carranco, after the contrada itself. Six wines now come from eight hectares, totalling around 35,000 bottles a year. The collaboration brought together two very different bodies of knowledge: Borgogno's long experience with calibrated oak ageing and extended maceration in Piedmont, and Tornatore's native fluency with Etna's soils, vine stock, and seasonal rhythms. Both partners grow only native Sicilian varieties. No international grapes are planted.

Place

Etna is a live volcano in northeastern Sicily, and its north slope, centred on the township of Castiglione di Sicilia, is where most of the island's wine-serious attention has landed over the past two decades. The volcano's altitude and aspect moderate what would otherwise be punishing Sicilian heat: at 500 metres in Contrada Carranco, temperatures are cooler than the valley floor, and the season runs long enough to preserve acidity in both red and white grapes.

Contrade are the named sub-zones of Etna, analogous to Burgundy's lieux-dits, and they can appear on the label under Etna DOC rules. Contrada Carranco sits at the northernmost limit of the estate. Its soils are volcanic basalt with thin topsoil over rock, and small terraces cut into the hillside hold the oldest bush-trained vines. The north aspect and elevation push Nerello Mascalese toward a longer ripening arc, which translates into more acidity, less alcohol, and tighter tannin than the same grape grown lower or further south.

Soil And Site

The dominant material underfoot in Contrada Carranco is basalt, the dark volcanic rock that Etna produces in abundance. Vine roots on basalt terraces reach into fractured rock rather than deep soil, limiting vigour and concentrating the crop. The cru parcel at the estate's northern edge sits among exposed basalt outcrops and is planted entirely to bush-trained vines on those narrow terraces, a configuration that dates to when the vineyard was first established fifty to sixty years ago.

The eighteenth-century palmento at Villa dei Baroni is itself basalt-built, its original fermentation tanks lined with the same volcanic stone. The material runs continuously from vineyard to cellar.

Story

Borgogno's roots go back to Barolo. The house carries one of the oldest names in the Langhe, and after the Farinetti family took ownership, it began looking beyond Piedmont for land with comparable depth of history and vine age. Etna's north slope had exactly that: old vines on volcanic soils that had survived phylloxera because the louse cannot establish in sandy volcanic substrate, meaning many plantings on the mountain date back to the pre-phylloxera era or to the decades immediately after, when the north slope was replanted without grafting.

Francesco Tornatore had already built a reputation on the volcano as one of its native-born producers. When the two parties acquired Villa dei Baroni together in 2018, they brought in Borgogno's cellar philosophy: calibrated oak rather than formula ageing, maceration times adjusted to what each vintage and each parcel actually needed. That thinking shaped the range from the beginning. The Contrada Carranco wines are vinified with a portion of whole bunches in concrete, then aged in oak for exactly as long as the estate judges necessary, not for any minimum prescribed by appellation rules.

Vineyards And Cellar

The eight hectares are farmed sustainably across two main parcels. Most of the vineyard is Nerello Mascalese, with Nerello Cappuccio added as a blending component and Carricante grown in the northernmost sector for the white wines. A portion of the estate retains traditional bush-vine training, alberello in Italian, which keeps the canopy low and forces each plant to support a smaller crop load. The Contrada Carranco cru uses only bush-trained vines.

In the cellar, Carranco works across concrete, 225-litre oak barrels, and terracotta. The Etna Bianco Contrada Carranco begins fermentation in steel, then moves after three days into 225-litre barrels where it completes and ages. The red wines are fermented in concrete with a proportion of whole bunches, which adds tannic grip from the stems and preserves more of the aromatic lift native to Nerello Mascalese. Oak ageing for the Contrada reds is calibrated by vintage rather than fixed to a target period. The estate makes this visible on the label: the top red carries the initials RV rather than the word Riserva, because the wine ages for exactly as long as it needs, which may be less than the DOC minimum for a Riserva designation.

The eighteenth-century palmento at Villa dei Baroni is still in active use, its original basalt-lined tanks incorporated into the working cellar alongside concrete and wood.

Wines

The range divides into two tiers across two colours.

The Villa dei Baroni tier is the estate entry level. Etna Bianco Villa dei Baroni is a Carricante-based white vinified in stainless steel and aged in wood, with the producer describing it as structured and built for moderate ageing. Etna Rosso Villa dei Baroni blends Nerello Mascalese with Nerello Cappuccio, fermented in concrete and aged in oak: the Cappuccio component deepens the colour and softens some of the Mascalese's angular tannin, while the volcanic mineral character persists across both.

The Contrada Carranco tier comes from the single northernmost parcel on the estate. Etna Bianco Contrada Carranco is 100% Carricante from that specifically selected plot, fermented in steel and then moved to 225-litre barrels after three days: the barrel work builds texture and weight over the grape's naturally firm acidity. Etna Rosso Contrada Carranco, labelled RV, is Nerello Mascalese from bush-trained vines on basalt terraces, fermented in concrete with whole bunches and aged in oak on the estate's own schedule. The two additional wines in the six-wine range sit outside the verified source material.

In The Glass

Nerello Mascalese on Etna's north slope produces red wine that surprises drinkers who arrive expecting a big southern Italian red. The colour is pale, closer to a cool-climate Pinot Noir than to anything grown lower on the island. What rises from the glass is red cherry and dried rose petal, sometimes a faint iron or volcanic mineral note, always a floral lift that comes partly from whole-bunch fermentation and partly from the grape itself. In the mouth, the tannin is firm and fine-grained rather than chewy, and the acidity runs high enough to give the wine a clean, almost taut mid-palate. The finish on the Contrada Carranco RV is long and savoury.

Carricante in the Contrada Carranco white shows differently: citrus and stone fruit on the nose, then a full, textured mid-palate from barrel fermentation that sits against a firm acid backbone. It does not drink like a light mineral white. It has weight and length, and the oak is absorbed rather than prominent.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Etna Rosso Villa dei Baroni. It is Nerello Mascalese with Nerello Cappuccio, fermented in concrete and aged in oak, and it puts both grapes and both partners' thinking into a single accessible bottle. The Cappuccio gives the colour some depth without masking the Mascalese's pale transparency; the concrete fermentation preserves a freshness that oak-forward ageing would dull. What you get is firm tannin, red fruit, and a savoury volcanic mineral presence that explains why this part of Sicily attracts serious wine attention. It is the most direct route into what Carranco is doing before committing to the single-parcel Contrada tier.

Anecdote

Carranco's top red does not say Riserva on the label. It says RV. When the estate was setting up the range, it ran into a straightforward problem: Nerello Mascalese from the Contrada Carranco parcel behaves differently vintage to vintage. Some years the wine needs less time in oak; some years the wood character integrates faster or slower depending on what the fruit brought in from those basalt terraces. The Etna DOC rules for a Riserva designation require a minimum ageing period, applied uniformly regardless of what the wine in the barrel actually needs that year. Carranco decided to age each vintage for as long as the wine required and to skip the designation entirely rather than ageing past the point of benefit to earn a category on the label. The two letters on the black bottle are what that decision looks like from the outside.

Final Word

Carranco is eight hectares of old-vine Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, and Carricante on the north slope of Etna, farmed from a historic palmento by two producers with very different origins and very compatible ideas about how long wine should spend in oak. The range is small, the thinking is clear, and the place is one of the most compelling volcanic wine addresses in Italy.

Sources

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