The 'Vinupetra,' or 'wine of stone,' comes from just a single hectare of 100+ year-old-vines on Etna's north side. Here, Nerello Mascalese sees huge swings in day/night temperature allowing the wine to walk a tightrope between concentrated, ripe fruit and a disciplined frame of structured minerality. Less brooding than last vintage, it is still rich, dense, and youthfully chewy, but with a sheer vibrancy of fruit that is pretty darn irresistible. The Vinupetra is dominated by grilled red cherry, tar, and red plum, beautifully complicated further by minerals and wild herbs. The unique soil and subsoil where these vines grow – lots of stones (“petra”) beneath the fine black basaltic flour-like sand on the surface – accounts for this wine’s stony personality and its capacity for slow development and graceful aging.