MT. ETNA, SICILY, ITALY

i Custodi’s Etna Rosso ‘Pistus’ emerges from parcels planted on Etna’s northern face, where the wines are known to have a more structured and savory quality. Comprising of 80% Nerello Mascalese with the remaining percentage dedicated to the softer and more aromatically driven Nerello Cappuccio, the vines used for ‘Pistus’ are planted to sandy, volcanic soils, macerated, whole-cluster fermented, and aged in steel tanks for 9 months. Like the farmers this style of wine once nourished, the Pistus is equal parts forthright, rustic, and hardy. Savory and spicy, the wine’s smoky core is trimmed by a focused nose of juicy currants, wild berries, wet forest floor, pine resin, lavender and fresh purple florals. 

THE WINE: Pistus is primarily the younger vines that don’t make it into the Aetneus bottling. Fresh and pure, volcanic spicy, good with a slight chill, and also good not with a slight chill!

THE PRODUCER: It’s spring, yet all of a sudden the air is becoming bitter cold. Extreme diurnal temperature swings mark one of many differences that make Mt. Etna different from the sun-n-fun vibe you usually find in Sicilia. We grab our jackets and start walking among I Custodi’s gnarly bush vines, curled into the stark black soils. The muted sun falls on cooled lava flows and crumbled pomice fields. Dry-terraced lava walls demarcate the vista. This is what it must be like to grow vines on the moon.

From its beginning in 2007, local owner Mario Paoluzi set the groundwork to make I Custodi an Etna fuoriclasse, as the Italians say, one of the greats. Besides sending us many cell phone pics of when A Muntagna is erupting, he has had unwavering passion to work exclusively with the ancient albarello bush vines, some of which in his possession are 150+ years old. He also has key vineyards holdings on the northern and southeastern slopes, and a cellar that allows for long ferments and extended elevage.