This September in London, Gaia Gaja, Angelo Gaja’s daughter, presented the IDDA wines – including the 2017, 2018 and 2019 vintages of IDDA Etna Rosso alongside the 2019 and 2020 vintages of IDDA Bianco.
The IDDA project is an exciting collaboration between two leading producers – Angelo Gaja, the famous Barbaresco producer from Piemonte, and Alberto Graci, one of the best producers on Etna.
Gaja met Graci in 2016 and recognised a kindred spirit. Both producers make very elegant wines on their respective home grounds.
Their idea was to explore the less developed southern slopes of Etna by planting two of Etna’s most important grape varieties, the white Carricante (labelled DOC Sicilia) and the red Nerello Mascalese (labelled DOC Etna).
‘Idda’ means ‘she’ in Sicilian dialect. Gaia overheard a conversation between two farmers in the vineyard: one said ‘”Idda” is in a bad mood today’. The other said ‘Yes, I don’t like it when I don’t know what “idda” is doing’. When Gaia asked Graci who “idda” was, he said that’s how we refer to the mountain – Etna. This shows how reverentially and intimately the locals feel connected to Etna and her moods.
Angelo Gaja was a great friend of Giacomo Tachis. In the 1990s Tachis tried to persuade his friend to buy vineyards on Etna and they visited Etna together. Gaja has never forgotten the impression of flying over the black mountain with its mantle of snow.
He told Gaia later that Etna looked like a queen with a shawl of white ermine around her neck and he dreamt of having vineyards there. It was when Gaja met Graci and found a like-minded local partner who knew the land and grape varieties that his dream began to come to life.
The IDDA project is bringing something exciting and different to this adventure by planting on Etna’s the southern slopes, and focusing on Carricante, whereas most producers have planted on Etna’s northern slopes with a focus on Nerello Mascalese.
Currently, white varieties account for only 20% of vines planted on Etna.
Carricante is one of Italy’s most exciting grape varieties and deserves to be more widely known. It has a razor-like acidity, producing mouth-watering wines, full of juicy freshness with citrus, candied lemon peel, white flower and orange zest aromas and flavours. It is Sicily’s answer to Riesling.
By locating the Carricante vines on the warmer southern slopes the team aims to bring more fullness and richness to the palate. Carricante is a late ripening variety; last year it was picked on Etna after Gaja’s Nebbiolo was harvested in Piedmont.
The IDDA project also makes a smaller volume of Etna Rosso, aiming for 24,000 bottles-a-year.
The Gaja family feel there is a kind of affinity between Nerello Mascalese and their own Nebbiolo. According to Gaia, ‘like Nebbiolo, Nerello Mascalese is transparent’.
Nerello Mascalese is lightly coloured with delicate red fruit aromas and flavours, a flinty, volcanic minerality, high acidity and firm tannins. It is sometimes referred to as the Nebbiolo of the south. Gaia says it is ‘a bit mysterious too’, and ‘there is elegance and complexity that comes from Etna’.
The IDDA project team has planted vineyards at Bronte at 970 metres above sea level, at Biancavilla between 640 and 820 metres, and at Belpasso between 600 and 650 metres. There are currently 24 hectares planted but the team is aiming for a total of 35 hectares and an annual production of 200,000 bottles. The main aim is to grow the production of Carricante.
In 2020 14,000 bottles were produced, up from 2,400 bottles in 2018 and 2019. A new winery is being built at Belpasso and should be finished in time for the next vintage. The plans show a beautifully integrated underground winery with a planted, flat roof that is very much in harmony with the environment.
What started as Angelo Gaja’s romantic dream of Etna is now also a practical response to the challenges of climate change.
Etna is the highest wine zone in Europe. Many regions of Italy have experienced record temperatures, while unusual weather patterns and earlier harvest dates are common.
This summer Sicily recorded its hottest temperature since records began at 48 degrees celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit). But Etna is a special place. Even when summer day-time temperatures reach the high 30s, night-time temperatures are cool and regularly drop by 17 or 18 degrees celsius.
Gaia Gaja says ‘climate change was a big motivator for planting vineyards on Etna’.
These wines are bright, vibrant and energetic, showing great potential, especially the more recent vintages.
One could not help being caught up in the excitement of seeing a project that will develop a new side of Etna and champion its fantastic white grape.
The world needs more wines of ‘electric freshness and minerality’, as Graci calls them. Together, Gaja and Graci seem determined to deliver them.
See the tasting notes and scores for the IDDA red and white wines
Wines are listed in ascending vintage order, white then red
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