Bella-Colonna

Bella-Colonna is a place rather than an estate: a small, high plot of Nerello Mascalese in the Calderara Sottana contrada, on the northern slope of Mount Etna outside Randazzo, at more than 600 metres. The vines are farmed by Tenuta delle Terre Nere, the winery founded by Marc de Grazia that helped lead Etna's modern revival, working organically on old lava soils.

Reds from this side of the mountain are often likened to Burgundy, and there is something in that: pale colour, real perfume, fine tannin and a mineral grip that could only come from a volcano. The Etna Rosso we stock is a very good introduction to why this corner of Sicily gets wine people so excited.