From the atlas
Le Vigne di Eli
At A Glance
- Country: Italy
- Region: Sicily, Mount Etna (north slope)
- Appellation: Etna DOC
- Municipalities: Castiglione di Sicilia and Randazzo
- Grapes: Carricante (whites), Nerello Mascalese (reds)
- Annual Production: approximately 8,000 bottles
- Farming: Organic
- Cellar: Uninoculated fermentation; barrique ageing (approximately 14 months for single-parcel reds)
- Range: Four wines: Etna Bianco, Etna Rosso, Moganazzi-Voltasciara Etna Rosso, Calderara Sottana Etna Rosso
The Producer
Marco de Grazia already had Tenuta delle Terre Nere, a north-Etna estate with parcels across several of the volcano's most argued sectors, when he started something smaller alongside it. Le Vigne di Eli was founded in 2006, not as a commercial extension but as a gift for his daughter Elena. The whole project takes its name from her.
Elena drew the labels from the first vintage and has continued designing them since. That detail is not incidental: the drawings are the clearest outward sign that this is a different kind of estate from Terre Nere, built at a scale where 8,000 bottles a year is the ceiling and every parcel is chosen for what it gives rather than what it covers. A portion of the proceeds goes to the Meyer Pediatric Foundation Hospital in Florence.
Le Vigne di Eli is now formally part of the Tenuta delle Terre Nere brand, functioning as a distinct, smaller segment of it. The vineyards sit within the municipalities of Castiglione di Sicilia and Randazzo, both on Etna's north slope, and the wines are farmed organically and planted exclusively with native Etna varieties.
Place
Mount Etna rises from the eastern coast of Sicily to just over 3,300 metres, and the vineyards of the north slope sit between roughly 600 and 1,000 metres altitude. That height changes everything about how grapes ripen here. Temperatures drop sharply at night even in summer, pushing growing seasons later than elsewhere in Sicily and holding acidity into the fruit long after the sugars have climbed.
The soils are volcanic throughout: layers of dark basalt and mineral-rich ash laid down by successive eruptions over centuries. They drain freely and force vines to root deeply for water, which concentrates flavour without adding weight. The combination of altitude, volcanic soil and Atlantic-facing exposure on the north slope makes Etna one of the few places in the Mediterranean where both a white wine grape and a red wine grape can produce bottles with cool-climate acidity alongside southern ripeness.
The Etna DOC covers the appellation for both whites and reds produced on the volcano. Within that frame, named sectors like Moganazzi-Voltasciara and Calderara Sottana function as vineyard addresses that appear on labels when the wine comes from a single parcel rather than a blend across the estate.
Soil And Site
The parcels in Castiglione di Sicilia and Randazzo sit on basalt and volcanic ash soils typical of Etna's north slope. Both municipalities are at altitude. Castiglione di Sicilia stretches from the valley floor up into the higher vine-growing zones and contains many of the north slope's most closely watched old-vine parcels. Randazzo sits further west along the northern arc of the volcano, with slightly cooler conditions and a longer growing season.
The Moganazzi-Voltasciara sector, from which Le Vigne di Eli sources its most focused red, is an area of the north slope where old-vine Nerello Mascalese and the volcanic soil combine to produce wines with concentrated mineral character alongside red fruit and fine tannin.
Story
Marco de Grazia is an Italian-American wine figure who was instrumental in bringing small Burgundy domaines to the American market in the 1980s and 1990s before turning his attention to Etna. He founded Tenuta delle Terre Nere in 2002, well before Etna had become a topic for wine drinkers outside Italy, and built a range around named north-slope parcels at a time when most Sicilian producers were selling varietal wines from the island's warmer interior.
Le Vigne di Eli grew from the same territory and the same thinking, but at a different scale and with a different purpose. When the project started in 2006, the plan was to select vineyards of exceptional character within the Castiglione di Sicilia and Randazzo communes and keep production tiny enough that every decision mattered: which parcel, which vintage, which barrel. The Moganazzi parcel came into the picture in 2007, and its first harvest was so small that the wine went directly to charity rather than to market. That decision shaped the range from the start: this was an estate where scarcity was a function of site, not of price.
Vineyards And Cellar
All the vineyards are organically farmed and planted with native Etna varieties. No other grape enters the range: Carricante for the whites, Nerello Mascalese for the reds. The choice to work only with native varieties on a volcano already known for them is a production constraint that keeps every wine rooted in the same narrow genetic and geographical territory.
Fermentation happens without inoculation, using the ambient yeasts present on the grape skins and in the cellar. This approach slows fermentation and produces wines with more variable aromatic character vintage to vintage, but it also means the yeast population reflects the vineyard rather than the laboratory. For the Moganazzi-Voltasciara red, wood ageing runs to approximately 14 months in barriques, adding mild tannin grip and slight toasty depth without overwhelming the fruit or the mineral character that comes from the volcanic soil.
Wines
The range has four wines. Two are white, both from 100% Carricante: the estate-level Etna Bianco and the Moganazzi-Volta Sciara Etna Bianco. Carricante is Etna's main white grape, a variety with firm natural acidity, a saline mineral quality on the palate and enough dry extract to carry age. Both white wines are vineyard expressions of the same grape; the Moganazzi-Volta Sciara version draws from the named north-slope sector and shows a sharper, more concentrated character.
The reds are three separate 100% Nerello Mascalese expressions. Nerello Mascalese is a pale-skinned, high-acid variety that produces wines with fine tannin, lifted aromatics and a translucency in the glass that sits apart from most southern Italian reds. The estate-level Etna Rosso draws from across the Castiglione di Sicilia and Randazzo holdings. The Calderara Sottana Etna Rosso comes from a single cru in the Randazzo area, with a cooler, more mineral-edged profile. The Moganazzi-Voltasciara Etna Rosso is the smallest and most concentrated of the three: a single parcel, approximately 14 months in barriques, producing a dense, chewy wine that needs time or a long decant to open fully.
In The Glass
The Carricante whites open with citrus and light floral lift, then settle into a firm, saline mid-palate with a dry, almost chalky finish. The acidity is pronounced rather than soft, giving the wines a clean, driving quality and a taut first sip.
The Nerello Mascalese reds are pale in the glass, often closer to a deep rosé than the dense purple of a southern Italian red. The nose carries red cherry, dried rose petal and mineral notes, with a faint volcanic quality that is hard to describe as any single fruit or spice. On the palate, the tannins are present but not heavy, and the acidity carries the wine through to a floral finish. The Moganazzi-Voltasciara is the most concentrated of the three reds: denser on entry, with more pronounced spice and mineral depth, harmonious acidity, and polished tannins that arrive later in the mouth. It tastes better after several hours open than it does on first pour.
A Bottle To Understand It
The Etna Rosso Moganazzi-Voltasciara is the bottle to start with. It is 100% Nerello Mascalese from a single north-slope parcel in the Moganazzi sector, fermented without inoculation and aged approximately 14 months in barriques. In the glass it is dense and youthfully chewy, with red fruit, mineral and spice, firm harmonious acidity, polished tannin and a long floral finish. Decant it well ahead of drinking. That single practice unlocks what the parcel can do: the wine opens slowly and rewards the wait with more complexity and more length than it gives on first contact. At 8,000 bottles across the whole range, the Moganazzi is genuinely scarce, but it is the wine that most clearly shows what Marco de Grazia was looking for when he bought the parcel the day it came up for sale.
Anecdote
In 2007, a small plot in the Moganazzi sector of Etna's north slope appeared on the market. Marco de Grazia bought it the moment he heard. The parcel was tiny, and the first harvest reflected that: three barriques of wine, total. There was not enough to build a commercial release around, so de Grazia assigned the entire yield to the Meyer Pediatric Foundation Hospital in Florence, the same charity already receiving a share of Le Vigne di Eli's proceeds. The wine never reached a shelf. It went straight to the foundation. The following harvests produced more, the release was built, and the Moganazzi-Voltasciara eventually became the most closely watched cuvee in the range. The three-barrique first vintage existed entirely outside the commercial market, which means the wine now sold under that name has no commercial first vintage: its first public appearance was the one after the charitable gift.
Final Word
Le Vigne di Eli is a small estate doing exactly what it set out to do: eight thousand bottles from carefully chosen north-Etna parcels, organically farmed, fermented on ambient yeasts, with labels drawn by the person the whole project was made for. The range is narrow by design, and the Moganazzi-Voltasciara red is the wine where that narrowness produces the most concentrated result.
Sources
- https://www.tenutaterrenere.com/en/le-vigne-di-eli-2/
- https://freerunwinemerchants.com/producer/le-vigne-di-eli/
- https://terroirsense.com/en/p/6541.html