Graci

At A Glance

Producer: Graci Country: Italy Region: Sicily Appellation: Etna DOC Primary Grape: Nerello Mascalese Founded: 2004 Farming: Minimal intervention, no herbicides, alberello training, ungrafted pre-phylloxera vines in Barbabecchi

The Producer

Alberto Graci left Milan in 2004 and came back to family land on the northeastern slopes of Mount Etna, where his relatives had farmed for generations. The decision was not sentimental. He had seen what high-altitude volcanic viticulture could produce and wanted to make wine from it. He started with five hectares, farmed at elevations between 600 and 1,000 metres under the Etna DOC appellation, and built an estate around Nerello Mascalese, the indigenous red grape that Etna's black basalt soils shape into something unlike anything grown lower on the island.

Graci now holds the position of Vice President of the Etna DOC Consorzio. The estate is among the producers most closely associated with Etna's rise in international attention over the past twenty years, and the range runs from approachable estate Etna Rosso to Quota 1000 Barbabecchi, a single-contrada bottling from ungrafted century-old vines.

Place

Mount Etna is an active volcano on the northeastern tip of Sicily. The Etna DOC appellation covers the slopes of the volcano across several compass points, but the northeastern side, where Graci farms, carries the combination of high elevation, cooler temperatures, and morning cloud cover that slows ripening and holds natural acidity in the grapes. The Barbabecchi vineyard contains 50-year-old, free-standing alberello vines at 1,000 metres.

Altitude on Etna is not incidental to the label. Graci's Quota 1000 Barbabecchi takes its name directly from the elevation of the Barbabecchi contrada: 1,000 metres above sea level. At that height, harvest runs into November, the nights are cold enough to fix aromatic compounds in the grape skins, and the wines arrive at lower natural alcohol than Etna bottlings from parcels at 600 or 700 metres. The volcanic basalt that covers the upper slopes adds mineral character to the tannin frame and to the finish.

Soil And Site

Etna's upper slopes are covered in black basalt lava flow from successive eruptions. The soil is friable, free-draining, and low in organic matter. Phylloxera, the root louse that destroyed most of Europe's vineyards in the late nineteenth century, cannot establish itself in volcanic basalt: it needs sandy loam to travel from vine to vine. The Barbabecchi contrada at 1,000 metres still contains pre-phylloxera Nerello Mascalese on original ungrafted rootstock, surviving intact on the same volcanic soils their predecessors planted.

The Barbabecchi plot covers two hectares. The vines are approximately 50 years old, trained in free-standing alberello, the traditional bush-vine method used across Sicily and Etna's heritage parcels. Vine density across the estate runs from 6,000 to 10,000 vines per hectare, with the Barbabecchi plot at 8,500. That density forces each vine to compete for water and nutrients, concentrating what it puts into the fruit.

Story

When Graci returned to Etna in 2004, the volcano's reputation outside Sicily was thin. A small number of producers were bottling their own wine; most growers still sold to cooperatives or bulk buyers. Graci farmed the family land, built the cellar around large-format Stockinger oak foudres rather than the barriques that dominated Italian winemaking at the time, and focused on minimal intervention in vineyard and cellar: no herbicides, extended skin maceration without temperature control, and no attempt to soften or accelerate what the volcanic soils and high altitude were producing.

By 2016, Etna had attracted serious attention from Italian wine circles. That year, Angelo Gaja, the Piedmontese producer whose name carries as much weight in Italian wine as any living figure, came to the volcano. What happened next became one of the clearer demonstrations of Graci's position on Etna: Gaja arrived with a suggestion; Graci proposed a partnership instead. The two formed Idda, a joint venture whose name comes from the Sicilian dialect word for "she." They acquired a first parcel of 51 acres in Biancavilla, carrying roughly 27 planted acres of Nerello Mascalese, and a second 51-acre parcel in Belpasso the following year, this one with around 30 acres of Carricante. The first Idda vintage was released in 2017. It carries both names on the label.

Vineyards And Cellar

Graci farms across multiple named contrade on Etna's northeastern slopes, with parcels at different elevations contributing to the range architecture. The Arcuria contrada sits above the estate level and below Barbabecchi in altitude. The Barbabecchi contrada at 1,000 metres is the highest and most demanding: ungrafted alberello vines farmed at 8,500 per hectare, no irrigation, harvest in November.

Alberello training means no wire supports and no mechanical assistance. Each vine is pruned to a low bush and carries a small number of canes. The work is entirely by hand. The low yield per vine and the high plant density together push more flavour compounds into less fruit.

In the cellar, Graci uses large Stockinger foudres rather than small barriques. Large oak vessels allow gentle oxidation over a long ageing period without imposing obvious wood flavour on the wine. The Quota 1000 Barbabecchi matures for 24 to 36 months in these casks depending on vintage: the 2021 was aged 24 months, the standard protocol runs to 36. Extended ageing in large oak softens tannin texture without erasing the volcanic mineral character that the basalt soils build into Nerello Mascalese at this altitude.

Wines

The range moves in three steps by altitude and vine age, each bottled under the Etna DOC appellation.

The estate Etna Rosso is 100% Nerello Mascalese from parcels at lower elevations in the Graci holdings. It is built for earlier drinking: the 2023 opens with crushed red berries, sour cherry, pomegranate, rose petals, a hint of blood orange and volcanic smoke from the basalt soils. The 2020 was supple and rounded, the fruit leaning toward ripe strawberry. Tannins are approachable and the acidity is lively without the austerity of the higher-altitude wines.

The Arcuria contrada wines sit above the Etna Rosso in the range. The Arcuria Sopra il Pozzo bottling from older vines in this parcel is tighter and more mineral: the 2017 was reviewed as fresh and fine, expressive and mineral, showing the lift and acidity that higher-elevation Nerello Mascalese develops over ageing.

At the top of the range, Quota 1000 Barbabecchi is 100% Nerello Mascalese from the two-hectare ungrafted alberello plot at 1,000 metres. The wine spends 24 to 36 months in large Stockinger foudres. It presents a luminous ruby red in the glass. Aromas run to small red fruits, Mediterranean herbs, spices, mineral tones and balsamic hints, with violet and red cherry in the 2021 vintage. The palate is long-finishing, with fine tannins and a marked volcanic imprint that persists well after the wine has left the glass.

In The Glass

The Etna Rosso opens with immediate fruit: crushed red berry, pomegranate and sour cherry rise quickly from the glass, followed by a thread of rose petal and a faint cut of blood orange. On the palate the wine is supple, the tannins soft enough to drink within a few years, with volcanic smoke adding a mineral note to the finish. Acidity keeps the fruit from reading as heavy.

The Arcuria wines are more contained at first. They need time in the glass before the fruit loosens from the mineral frame. The 2017 Sopra il Pozzo showed what older vines in this contrada produce: fine-grained, expressive, with a mineral lift that the fruit supports rather than dominates.

Quota 1000 Barbabecchi moves in a different register altogether. The bouquet is layered: small red fruits and Mediterranean herbs at the front, then spice and balsamic depth behind them, then mineral tones that read as volcanic rather than earthy. In the mouth the tannins are fine but present, the acidity is marked, and the finish extends with that volcanic imprint holding long after the wine has left the palate. The wine does not rush. Its character builds across the time in the glass rather than announcing everything at once.

A Bottle To Understand It

Quota 1000 Barbabecchi. This is 100% Nerello Mascalese from ungrafted alberello vines at 1,000 metres, aged for 24 to 36 months in large Stockinger foudres. Every choice Graci makes in vineyard and cellar lands in this one bottle: the highest altitude parcel, the oldest and densest vines on volcanic basalt, the large-format oak that integrates without dominating, the late November harvest that concentrates flavour without losing acidity. The wine arrives with a luminous ruby depth in the glass. Small red fruits, Mediterranean herbs, mineral tones and balsamic hints on the nose; fine tannins, a marked volcanic finish, and a persistence that outlasts the pour. Start here to understand what Etna's upper slopes produce and what a cellar built around patience does with it.

Anecdote

In 2016, Angelo Gaja came to Mount Etna and told Alberto Graci he should start a project there. Graci listened, then said he had a better idea: they should do it together. Gaja agreed. The two found a first parcel of 51 acres in Biancavilla, with roughly 27 acres of Nerello Mascalese already planted. The following year they added a second 51-acre site in Belpasso, this one carrying around 30 acres of Carricante. They called the venture Idda, the Sicilian dialect word for "she," and released the first vintage in 2017. The wine carries both names on the label. Gaja had arrived with a commission in mind. He left as a partner.

Final Word

Graci is a high-altitude Etna estate built around the conviction that Nerello Mascalese on volcanic basalt at 1,000 metres is one of Italy's most particular wine propositions. The range moves logically from the approachable Etna Rosso to the Arcuria contrada bottlings to Quota 1000 Barbabecchi, and each step upward in altitude adds mineral depth and ageing potential. The Barbabecchi, with its ungrafted pre-phylloxera vines and long oak ageing, is the clearest argument for what the volcano can produce when nothing is hurried.

At A Glance

The Producer

Place

Soil And Site

Story

Vineyards And Cellar

Wines

In The Glass

A Bottle To Understand It

Anecdote

Final Word

Sources

Where to go next