Becoming Friends with a Volcano, One Glass at a Time

I reflect on Etna and a night of interesting wines as I dig a rabbit-hole to outfit the cellar with Sicilian reds.

I Custodi Saeculare Etna Rosso Riserva 2014

Varieties: Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Capuccio, Alicante

Region: Etna, Sicily, Italy

Producer: I Custodi / Salvo Foti

Costs: $80-$90

Missive: Becoming Friends with a Volcano, One Glass at a Time

This is a night to celebrate what wine is all about. A celebration of community and achievement. Folks who can appreciate a bottle that is put before them. And boy, did we have so many bottles put before us. I tried to organize it in a way that was not overbearing. You know me, folks… I could do five bottles of Italian red wine in a row! But alas, we have to opt for a natural progression. A new rosé sparkling, a Canary Island white wine, and then we can get into the reds. Three bottles of reds to be exact. You all are getting me at a very particular time. I feel like Hemingway sitting before his typewriter circa 1920. In the golden period, if we’re being honest.

So what were the wines tonight? I could write about them all individually, though that may be overwhelming. It would be overwhelming for me at this point. I’d like to focus less on the wines and more on the feeling they gave me and others. I will certainly highlight this freaking twelve-year-old Etna Rosso Riserva, but it simply does not feel worth it to go through the specifics of every single wine! They were all individually fantastic. I will provide photos of them. If you can find them, source them, smuggle them in, and go for it. Please. Every single one of these was a highlight in its own right. I chose to open up some special wines from my cellar, and they did not disappoint. Buyer beware: if you do seek out these wines, they will connect you with Bacchus and Dionysus on a deeper level.

The wine of the night, in all of its glory.

Let’s talk about this Etna Rosso, though. The least I could do is provide a small glance into one of these wines. Salvo Foti has long been one of my favorite Sicilian wine producers. You can find his wines under the I Custodi and I Vigneri labels, and he also helps out with the Daino label. Basically, anything coming out of Sicily with the albarello bush vine stamped on the bottle is a guaranteed hitter. That’s exactly what the Saeculare bottling is. There is so much complexity in this wine at sub $100 that you forget what QPR is. How do you get ripe fruit, acidity, subtle tannins, and volcanic spice layered on top of one another? Plus, you get all of that for around $80?Riddle me that. Seriously. It reinforces the fact that even in 2026, Sicily gives you one of the best bangs for your buck.

I always joke about it. Man, did I miss the boat on Burgundy and Bordeaux. There are certain customers who come into the store and share that their parents, or significant others, built out their cellars with the best 20th-century vintages from various French appellations. Alright, and if I had millions of dollars today, I would do the same damn thing too. Yeah, yeah, Champagne this and Margaux that, but what about Taurasi? Or Etna? Or Montalcino? Alright, Montalcino may be a stretch in terms of price, but you get my point. Etna especially.

I could seriously outfit my entire cellar with Salvo Foti, I Custodi, I Vigneri, and even COS/Occhipinti stuff, at about ⅓ to ½ of the price if I were to simply focus on Burgundy or Bordeaux. Again, it’s not an either-or thing. Go out there and buy those historical French wines. Historical in the sense of bottle age or who is producing the wine. I’m just providing a QPR comparison because who can’t appreciate that?

The Saeculare bottling from Salvo Foti is an experience. There is no other way to put it. The guy cellars it himself for 10 years before releasing it to market. It comes out firing on all cylinders. This thing screams of place, while also being sort of dressed up by a human’s graceful touch. Folks, this damn wine is sourced from vines that are up to 150 years old and planted on original rootstock. The age of the vines, soil type, and bedrock ensure something special, but then you add in 500 liters tonneaux… I mean, do I need to say anymore?

Yes, I do. Because even if I have laid all of this out, you are still probably wondering about the specifics of said wine. Well, it was the whole assortment of wines that made me scatterbrained, but I owe this all to you. Let's move on to the specifics of the Saeculare.

The morning after… maybe you all can see why I was a bit scatterbrained.

Perfection. That is the singular word for this wine. The fruit comes through as the blood orange and reductive raspberry note. In addition to the fruit, you get the classic spiced Mediterranean shrub note. This is a celebration of place and choosing the perfect size of oak barrels to use. I detect this subtle note of vanilla at the end. So, you get fruit, spice, and oak-influenced notes in a clear order. They do harmonize, but they are also easy to separate in a way. On the palate, this wine only further cements itself as one of the greats from Italy.

This is a wine that is sure of itself and does not try to be anything other than what it is. The Nerello Mascalese is smooth, precise, and perfectly blends acidity and tannins. It’s forgiving but confident at the same time. In a boxing match, it doesn’t hit you with an uppercut like a Cabernet Sauvignon. Yet, it also doesn’t have the butterfly nature of a Pinot Noir, even if the 150-year-old vines sting like a bee. It’s something of an in-between that can dance around your palate while also hitting you with some serious shots. Boom! There’s pomegranate balsamic. Ahh! There’s dried oregano with vanilla. You get the point. This is a serious wine, at a bargain, for serious folks.

This is it, people. This is what it means to love wine in all of its glory. A night dedicated to opening bottles that you would normally save for your future children’s graduation. However, I have my own reasons to celebrate. That’s a story for another night. I will attach photos of everything that was opened tonight. The beautiful thing about opening these bottles tonight? They were appreciated. Plus, it allows me to buy a couple more bottles for my cellar. What will it be? More back-vintage bottles of Montalcino reds? Or, do I throw caution to the wind and invest fully in Sicily? These are decisions that I will have to update you all on down the line. It’s the least I could do for you all, sticking around in the meantime to read all these ramblings. I appreciate you all as much as I appreciate what Bacchus and Dionysus have provided me with tonight. Cheers folks!

Non-Etna related, but dang try these wines if you get a chance. A white and red coming more from the Vittoria region of Sicily.