A small elevated terrace on Contrada Arcuria has produced a very special wine every year. Here are 2 ha with Albarello Nerrelo Mascalese.
The wine has always been light like a Barolo Monprivato, but also elegant as such.
Alberto has every year mixed the juice in his regular Arcuria, but in 2015, for the first time ever, he has vinified the juice entirely himself.
The result is Arcuria Sopra il Pozzo , loosely translated OVER THE WELL, alluding to the river that flows beneath this terrace.
2000 bottles have been made. The wine is fantastically elegant, and it resembles great classic Barolo as much as great Pinot Noir.
This is only the second vintage of this wine. The wine has fermented on a large tin without temperature control and skin contact for a long time. 18 months in tin followed by at least 12 months in bottle.
The wine is organic like everything else from Graci.
Here's a very exciting wine from a classic vintage. The 2016 Etna Rosso Arcurìa Sopra il Pozzo is a relatively new addition to the Graci portfolio. Fruit is taken from a specific section of the Contrada Arcuria, literally Sopra il Pozzo, or "above the well," showing a unique soil profile with layers of stone and thickly grained volcanic sand called "rifusa" by local vintners. This 1.5-hectare section always performed differently than the rest of the Contrada, and following a targeted soil study that started in 2004, Alberto Graci would eventually decide to make a vineyard-designate bottle from above the well starting with the 2015 vintage. This wine is saturated and powerful with a tightly coiled approach and linear but slightly sweet tannins. The fruit is dark and profound, and the wine is deeply etched by pencil shavings and elegant minerality. This is a good place to start talking about the greatness of Etna wines.