The Etna Report – 2024.1

It has been eight years since I last reported from Etna. In 2016 I was here as a blogger, but primarily as a photographer, covering for Eric Asimov and the New York Times. Eric’s articles were wonderful, as always, and I was privileged to be there to document it visually.

But now, in 2024, I was here as a guest of the Consorzio Tutela Dei Vini Etna DOC at their event, Etna Days. They arranged my airfare and meals and hotels while I was in their care. They didn’t ask me to cover the event in any particular way, or really at all. There was no tit-for-tat, although being a lover of Italian wine and Sicily, that, for me was a given. So, let’s dig in.

Regular readers to this site will already know my general dislike for wine tasting notes. While I tasted hundreds of wines while in and on Etna, I cannot imagine listing them here. Who will read them? Who will care? And, really, that’s not why I am here. You wish a view and a feel for Etna? I can do that. You want a taste? You’re on your own. Go to Etna. Taste. Tasting is believing.

No, I’m here to paint a picture of the place. In the 30+ years I have been going to La Mutagna, I’ve seen sweeping changes. We talk about geologic time. On Etna, geologic time prevails, for sure. But the last several generations have been geologic in effect - a whole lot of changes going on.

Even the last eight years have shown me that Etna is moving at a pace that might be hard to pin down. It’s light years different from 2016 – light years! It was almost as if they had plopped another reality right down on the existing ones, palimpsest-like. But then again, Sicily is the epi-center of palimpsest-like occurrences. And Etna is no exception.

The energy of the place reminds me so much of my early days in California. The winds of change blow often and constant in both places, perhaps fueled by what lies underneath the earth. In Etna’s case, there is the  steady heartbeat of the mountain, a metronome for life there. Both an inspiration and a existential peril. And nourishment, for the soil and, risking a cliché, the soul of winemaking on Etna.

People talk about the energy there, and it is undeniable. But how does that translate to wine and winemaking, in 2024? We hear about the history of the place, when it was an economic wine power center, providing grapes, must, wine and alcohol for a world beyond, which sucked long at hard at the teats of Etna. Am I being too graphic? With no apologies, I feel what I feel, when I am there. And though much of that 19^th century early industrial energy has long dissipated, it doesn’t take more than a walk or two in the feral hills to know that the energy is there, waiting to re-awaken and carry on. 

Of course, now it must contend with the 21^st century social and emotional ardor that is populating Etna in the present times. It’s not quite like rearranging the desk chairs on the Titanic, more like a game of musical chairs during a fire drill. Etna is not boring! Nor are the wines. But exactly what are they and where are they leading to? And how does the notion of Etna integrate towards a more thorough understanding of Sicily and Sicilian-ness? 

These are some of the questions I came how with, and ones which I will dive in for this series. 

 

 

Recommended further reading by other participants at the conference/workshop: Tasting Report: Red and White Wines of Mt. Etna by Meg Maker  

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