Grapes here are pulled from a jigsaw puzzle of six different small parcels on the north slope ('Versante Nord') at elevations ranging from 550 to 850 meters. Averaging over 50 years old, the vines are planted in alberello (bush training) in sandy, ashy soils; varieties are interplanted and include a preponderance of Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio, as well as smatterings of Alicante, Garnacha, and other reds (plus many white varieties). A mineral blast of old-vine fruit, combined with elevage in concrete tanks and a degree of whole-cluster inclusion, results in a brilliant recipe for an Etna red that deftly balances power with perfume and refinement. A seductive current of Morello cherries, charred violets, roasted plums, licorice, wild mountain herbs, black raspberry and crushed black rock pulses through the wine, set against clean, dusty tannin and leading to a fresh, amaro-like finish. ‘Versante Nord; Rosso is the largest bottling from Eduuardo's overall very small production.
Eduardo Torres Acosta, a young winemaker from the Canary Islands, first began working with vines in his native (and equally volcanic) home of Tenerife, where his father, a local postman, owned a small parcel of land. The 2012 vintage saw Eduardo uproot his life and shift to Sicily, interning at the now famed property of Arianna Occhipinti. Soon thereafter Eduardo was offered the position of head enologist at Azienda Passopisciaro, considered by many as one of the leading pioneers of ‘new-wave’ Etna wine of the past decade. Despite Eduardo’s ‘outsider’ status, he endeavored in forging his own path, renting and farming several parcels on the north side of Etna, and bottling his first commercial vintage in 2014. While working originally and with very little cellar intervention, there is no formulaic recipe for Eduardo’s winemaking. ‘My vinification depends on the vintage,’ says Eduardo. The harvest date usually depends on altitude, and only the single vineyard wines are vinified separately. ‘I am trying to translate each vineyard and each vintage in different ways,’ he says. Though the properties he works with are located firmly on the slopes of Sicily’s famed volcano, the grapes are harvested but then transported to and vinified on the Occhipinti estate in Vittoria, thus the wines, while technically being very much so, do not carry the Etna Rosso name.