Passopisciaro: Producer profile

Andrea Franchetti’s Tuscan winery, Tenuta di Trinoro, helped to bring the Val d’Orcia into the spotlight in the late 1990s. And since the very early 2000s, Franchetti has been making an impact on Sicily with his Passopisciaro project.

At the time, Sicily still had plenty of work to do to reach its current viticultural high point – in fact, Franchetti was a key figure in establishing Etna as a new fine wine region. When Franchetti arrived in 2000, he set up in an old farm building and began restoring abandoned vineyard terraces on the north side of Mount Etna.

Today, he farms 26ha of vines, all on the north flank of Mount Etna. 20ha are planted to Nerello Mascalese in the contradas of Rampante, Sciaranuova, Guardiola, Porcaria, and Chiappemacine, while 4ha are planted with Chardonnay and 2ha with Petit Verdot.

From these vineyards, Passopisciaro produces nine wines, including six contrada wines. It’s similar to a cru concept of sub-regional differences in the wines, which Franchetti is attributed with bringing to Sicily. Like at Tenuta di Trinoro, Franchetti follows his successful formula of high-density plantings (12,000 vines per hectare) and strict selections.

Le Contrade dell’Etna is an annual wine festival founded by Franchetti in 2007 to celebrate the myriad of sub-regions on the mountain. As each eruption leaves a different mineral profile in its solidified lava fields and can break into different layers of underlying rock, each area has a different signature – although they are actually defined by feudal property borders. Franchetti began bottling his separate contradas in 2008.

Passopisciaro’s contradas:

Contrada Chiappemacine

The estate’s lowest contrada, at 550m above sea level. Passopisciaro owns 1.2ha of this vineyard, which is situated on a bed of limestone and a thin layer of lava.

Contrada Porcaria

1.5ha are farmed by the estate here, at 650m above sea level on a splintered layer of lava.

Contrada Guardiola

On the edge of the 1947 lava flow, this vineyard rises from 800 to 1,000m above sea level. The estate’s winery sits in the middle of the contrada, and it owns 2.3ha of vines with an average age of over 100 years.

Contrada Sciaranuova

Located on lava flows from the 1600s at 850m above sea level, Passopisciaro owns 1ha of Sciaranuova.

Contrada Rampante

The estate’s highest vines are in Contrada Rampante, where it owns 1.7ha. Located at 1,000m above sea level on sandy lava soils, the altitude means it is often the last site to ripen, allowing the grapes to benefit from a long growing season. Vines here are over 100 years old.

Contrada Passochianche

A 0.5ha cru located at 900m above sea level planted to 18-year-old Chardonnay, producing a new bottling with the 2018 vintage.

A taste of Passopisciaro:

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