Two years after the untimely death of Tenuta di Fessina founder Silvia Maestrelli, her heirs are dedicating a special Reserve to her.
The label is of a color bright coral red, Silvia Maestrelli’s favorite. The source vineyards are also those most beloved by the producer, who died prematurely two years ago: the last three terraces of the estate’s highest plot, old saplings of Carricante rooted up to 1,000 meters above sea level on the southwest slope of Etna, in the municipality of Biancavilla.
A wine intended to tell the present and past story of Tenuta di Fessina. Since its founding in 2007, thanks to the love of thewinemaker and producer Silvia Maestrelli, of Tuscan descent, and her husband and partner Roberto Silva (who also passed away prematurely in 2019), for the Etnean terroir. Until their bequest to the daughter Lavinia and to those people who witnessed this adventure and wanted to carry it forward. Tenuta di Fessina, in fact, is now run by Roberto’s cousin, Stefano Silva, and by Jacopo Maniaci, a young man of Sicilian descent who graduated from UNISG in Pollenzo and was hired by Silvia already as director in 2015, managing director since 2021 and now part of the corporate structure, who runs the winery with the same passion and care that was Silvia’s.
The winery
The Tenuta di Fessina estate is located in Rovittello, on the northern slope of Europe’s highest active volcano, where it was inaugurated on October 7, 2007 from 5 hectares, painstakingly put together, as is often the case on Etna, after purchasing many small properties from different owners. Today, with the latest annexations in 2022 (two hectares of Nerello Mascalese in Contrada Moscamento), the vineyard stock amounts to 9 hectares, all located within the Etna DOC. Core of the winery is a 17th-century millstone, transformed into an absolutely charming wine resort nestled as it is among the historic vineyards of the volcanic landscape.
Terroir and wines
Silvia Maestrelli’s foresight was to secure plots on different slopes of the volcano, each with distinctive soil and climate characteristics. The first vineyards purchased were in north, in 2007, where 90 percent Nerello Mascalese is grown, but also Nerello Cappuccio and a small share of Carricante, Catarratto and Minnella. Special feature of the slope is the altitude reaching as high as 800 meters, the diversity of soils by epoch of lava flows (the 1809 and 1911 flows), and the sudden temperature changes, which result in late harvests, even in late October. The company’s great reds, Etna Rosso Erse and Erse Contrada Moscamento 1911, are born here.
Since 2012, the company has gone as far as east, in the municipality of Milo, in the districts of Rinazzo, Volpare and Caselle, where, aided by the influence of the sea, there is the highest rainfall in all of Sicily. Add to that the winds, altitudes up to 800 meters and young volcanic soils, to give rise to Carricante wines of greater acidity and verticality, such as the Etna Bianco Superiore Musmeci. A rare gem of the winery, it is made from 100-year-old Carricante vines and so far has been produced in only five vintages. The name is a tribute to the man, Ignazio Musmeci, who guarded these ancient vines, to whose family the winery is still closely connected today.
Before that, however, in 2009, Silvia’s project had developed to the southwest, in the municipality of Biancavilla, extreme limit of the Etna DOC. The temperate climate, ancient soils rich in sand and silt, and vineyards that reach up to 980 meters in Contrada Manzuedda, thus balancing the best exposure with altitude, guarantee Carricante and Nerello Cappuccio, of undisputed finesse and structure. And it is no coincidence that this is where the winery’s “headliners” are born, such as the white A’ Puddara, which made her famous, and, as of today, the Special Reserve Vigne Alte SM.
Wine
La Riserva Speciale A’ Puddara SM – Vigne Alte is a Carricante d’altura, produced in a limited edition of 744 bottles, or one tonneau, where the wine ages for two years on fine lees, followed by one in the bottle. Vinification takes place after careful selection of the grapes both in the vineyard and in the winery, followed by crushing without destemming, soft pressing with separation of the musts and cold static decantation. The organoleptic profile is similar to that of a mountain wine, with evident citrus and herbaceous notes and an extremely vertical sip, which betrays, however, its Mediterranean and volcanic character in the amplitude of the drink and in the evident iodine and hydrocarbon nuances.
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