The New Wines of Mount Etna by Benjamin North Spencer : Vinography
Let’s get the disclaimer ideal out of the way, shall we? I positively adore the wines of Mount Etna, the very energetic volcano that occupies the northeast corner of Sicily. I have seldom satisfied a Nerello Mascalese or Carricante that I did not like. I have made but a single check out to the island of Sicily, and simply just one week’s pilgrimage to Etna, but the volcano and its wines maintain a really exclusive place in my coronary heart.
That is why I was specially fired up to verify out Benjamin North Spencer’s new reserve, The New Wines of Mount Etna: An Insider’s Guide to the Background and Rebirth of a Wine Area. I only scratched the surface area when I was there in 2013, and in the previous 7 many years, dozens of new producers have appear out of the woodwork lava as both of those locals and transplants keen to be a portion of a single of the best (as in trendy, not as in magma) wine areas on the planet opened up wineries.
Fashionable Etna may be, but it has a long and intricate record, something Spencer relates with fantastic depth in this book, starting in the 8th Century BCE on up via the present. In friendly, relaxed prose, Spencer, who has lived on the volcano due to the fact 2012, strolls by the ages, sharing anecdotes and stories as he winds his way in direction of contemporary moments. Through this narrative, the reader comes to have an understanding of one thing of Sicilian winemaking heritage, as nicely as the central job that Etna has played in the island’s wine journey.
This background will make up the central third of the book, with the opening 100 webpages or so dedicated to an overview of the diverse grapes and wine variations on the mountain, and the latter 110 web pages dedicated to a rather in depth listing of the producers earning Etna wine.
As another person who has drunk a whole lot of wines from Etna and invested adequate time there to recognize the layers of secret, culture, and geology that make up the location, I came to The New Wines of Mount Etna with a excellent degree of enjoyment and anticipation. Very little even vaguely approximating the premise or scope of this reserve existed when I to start with frequented the mountain, and so I jumped in with excellent relish, hoping to have all my issues about the mountain and its wines answered.
Finally, nonetheless, I observed myself frustrated by the book. It may perhaps be that I only want and have to have one thing distinctive than what Spencer set out to write, but the firm, design, and emphasis of the book did not give me with the equipment or details that would be most helpful in both plotting my up coming check out, or having a lot more out of that go to once I was there.
Whilst clearly not a basic travel guidebook in conception, I did acquire the reserve at its term as a tutorial, and for the reason that of that, was hoping for a alternatively methodical breakdown of the Etna wine area in fantastic element. In distinct, and this is just the way my brain works, I was hoping for maps. A lot of maps.
Considerably to my disappointment, the only serious map of the Etna wine region is buried deep within the text on website page 162, and is primarily unreadable, serving only to supply the most typical orientation to the backwards “c” shape of the wine region that circles the volcano involving 400 and 1000 meters over sea stage. Even though the names of some towns outside the wine location are legible, none of towns within the wine area can be witnessed, nor any streets or other defining traits, allow by itself the places of the wineries that Spencer lists in the latter 3rd of the ebook.
That this map seems in the center of the tale, so to discuss, relatively than as a element of a specific orientation to the spot is indicative of probably my premier aggravation with the guide. Namely that it is far way too narrative in composition rather than organizational.
The sole map of Etna it supplies has not been placed in the ebook to assistance you realize and orient by yourself to the specifics of the region, it exists as an illustration accompanying the tale of how the Etna DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata — the Italian equivalent of an appellation) arrived to be.
Spencer provides a prosperity of data to be positive, but it is locked in paragraphs of a narrative that at moments has no very clear trajectory, and lacks a sure-handed group and composition that would deliver guideposts to the reader, as nicely as simple-to-reference data for repeat usage.
Leaving apart the very first 10 internet pages, which are aspect-introduction, section condensed historical past of winemaking on Etna, the to start with element of the guide starts off off straightforwardly plenty of, with an overview of the unique grapes grown on Etna and the different styles of wines they make. These 50-or-so web pages mix descriptions of the grapes, their history on Etna, fundamental principles about winemaking regimens, and the controlled designs of wine permitted in the area.
Matters get a small much more squirrelly immediately after that, as Spencer dives into viticulture, geology, the historical past of eruptions, seafood markets, the Cyclops and The Odyssey, the climate, phases of the moon, the biodynamic calendar, and additional. It’s a large amount to pack into 40 webpages, specially when interspersed with Spencer’s own memories and asides.
In delivering the long historical past of the area in the center of the ebook, Spencer normally takes us on a flaneur’s journey by the ages, freely mixing initial-human being narration of his have experiences on Etna with historical anecdotes as properly as stories of modern day people and gatherings. It is a stroll replete with detours into a variety cul-de-sacs: the recipe for acqua tina, a low liquor blend of wine and water the tale of Saint Agatha the historical ice sector in Sicily suggested nearby beers anecdotes on cartography, and additional.
Throughout the initially two sections of the e book, but particularly in the middle, I identified myself not sure of exactly where we were being headed and how very long it was going to take to get there. Much less raconteur and much more professor could possibly be 1 way of placing what I essential but did not get from this e-book.
I wished some lists (maybe of grape varieties and probably info about their proportions in the location) some timelines (to give structure to the unbelievable span of record that are protected in 100 or so internet pages of narrative) some diagrams (exhibiting how palmentos, the historic wineries of Etna, truly functioned) and higher than all, I desired some maps (of the island, of the region, of the mountain, of the communes, and definitely of the contrade).
If there was one particular factor I was hoping to get a obvious clarification of when I picked up this e book, it was the contrade, or what Spencer phone calls Mount Etna’s “neighborhoods.” The contrade (plural of the singular contrada) are historically named regions inside which winegrowing can take position on the mountain. They are names recognised by absolutely everyone who grows wines on Etna, and are shorthand for both of those a specific bounded spot, as effectively as a specific established of increasing situations.
“Legally,” writes Spencer, “contrade are described by altitude, element and geology, as very well as their administrative borders,” indicating in other places on the web page that “Differences come to be more and more noteworthy when wines from various contrade are in comparison.”
Just the web page prior to, Spencer has explained to us that there are “thirty-6 special compositions of rock, ash, and soil” that can be discovered in the Etna DOC, but aside from those nine words, he has remaining it at that.
From my standpoint, this lies at coronary heart of comprehending what Etna is all about when it arrives to wine: the interplay amongst these extensive-set up contrade, many of which adhere to the boundaries of particular historical lava flows, and the character of the geology that each provides to all those who opt for to expand wines in that area. But other than two internet pages of introductory textual content on the thought, we are still left with only a record of 133 contrade in the appendix. Luckily, that checklist has been arranged by area (south, east, and north) as very well as sub-location, but I want so a lot a lot more. And not just a map that shows each and every of them plainly, while that would be a start out.
What are those people 36 various types of soil, and what genuinely would make them various? How do those soil types correspond to diverse contrade? What is the marriage between recognised historical lava flows and the contrade? What is the connection between historical land holdings on the mountain and all those contrade? What do winemakers say about how grapes perform in a different way in diverse contrade? What are individuals distinctions that “become progressively notable when wines from different contrade are as opposed?”
Possibly I’m inquiring far too a lot, or probably I’m asking for facts that Spencer and the business at large really don’t but recognize by themselves, but to me it would seem like these contrade are the Etna equivalent of Burgundian climats. Merely listing the sub-appellations of Burgundy, this kind of as Meursault or Saint-Aubin, and not describing why and how they are distinct, let by itself which sections are grand cru and which are simply village-stage plots, leaves the reader with only the impression, instead than a true knowing of Burgundy. The exact, I believe that, is true below with Etna, even if we absence a thousand a long time of meticulous perform by monks to publish it all down. The growers on Etna may possibly not have ranked the contrade in conditions of excellent, but just about surely there is far more to know about every of them, their history and geology, and particularly what people signify for the wines they can and could generate.
The last third of the e-book I uncovered possibly the most satisfying, not always mainly because of how it read through, but only since of its obvious and handy composition. In it, the Etna wine area is broken down into its a few key sections (North, East, and South) and in just every single a listing of producers centered in that area is provided. Every single of these producers is provided a 1-web site profile with all kinds of useful information, these as their social media existence, their acreage, their production degrees, how they educate their vines, in which contrade they have plantings, and more. Although the narrative text of these profiles varies a good deal from producer to producer, building it often complicated to get a perception of what distinguishes one particular from another, the in-depth stats provided about every single are very useful.
Now if only we experienced a map demonstrating where each and every of them ended up!
Make no oversight, this guide includes extra data about the wines of Mount Etna and the heritage of wine expanding in the location than any other English-language (or almost certainly any other language) guide prior to it. I discovered a good deal by looking at it. But as a instrument for these hunting to certainly get deep into what Etna has to offer you, it comes up shorter, in my belief, maybe by hoping to be much too many issues at once and eventually not actually succeeding at any of them.
However, anyone interested in the wines of Mount Etna or the historical past of Sicilian wine increasing will find some thing new and attention-grabbing to discover in its internet pages.
Benjamin North Spencer – The New Wines of Mount Etna: An Insider’s Guide to the History and Rebirth of a Wine Region – Gemelli Push 2020, $23.99 (Paperback). Obtain from Amazon.
