‘Vino di Anna’ emerged from the corner of Andrea Francchetti’s Passopisciaro winery and grew out to be one of Mount Etna’s most innovative, creative, and exciting estates. The wines made by Anna and Eric are vibrant and honest, with minimal intervention in the cellar, they reflect the extreme terroir of their small plots of paradise.
Their approach involves reinforcing old local traditions: breathing new life into Palmento winemaking and restoring old alberrello vineyards with room for creative experimentation; vinify in Georgian qvevri, working in new parcels and varieties, trying out sous-voile winemaking, and constantly tweaking their craft. The wines are friendly and simply brilliant. They convey the welcoming familial spirit and unique sense of community that is felt when visiting. Amongst their broad range of wines, there is something for every occasion. Their wines are delicious and crunchy in their youth, but for those able to resist the urge, your patience is very likely to be rewarded.
Anna Martens grew up in Adelaide, Australia. She got a degree in science, majoring in microbiology and immunology, and then went on to pursue a postgraduate in viticulture and oenology. She started making wine, working for Brian Croser at the Petaluma estate in the Adelaide Hills where she stayed for nearly eight years. She then went on to New Zealand and enrolled in the Master of Wine Program, studying to one day sit the infamous exam. Meanwhile, the ‘travel bug’ hit her while making a big trip through the ‘classic’ wine regions of France and Italy. There, she discovered an approach to wine that was quite different from that of the modernised wine industry she had known – where wine was technically produced in the cellar, it was very common for the winemakers in the cellar to never set foot in the vineyards themselves. During those years, she kind of became ‘the flying winemaker’ working harvest at various estates throughout the world before coming to the well-known ‘Super Tuscan’ estate Tenuta dell’Ornellaia, around 2001.
It was also around this time, she met her now-husband Eric Narioo, a Frenchman who was travelling and studying in Italy to expand the portfolio of his until then French-oriented, wine-importing business Les Caves de Pyrène, based in the UK. Eric is quite the pioneer, who was way ahead of the curve in representing organic, biodynamic, and natural winemakers since the late 1980’s. Today, his import business is one of the most successful; not only in showcasing natural wine in all its diversity but also in supervising estates’ conversion to natural winemaking and proving that quality and quantity can coexist within natural wine.
On a side note, Troppo’s own, Théo Cauchois worked for Les Caves de Pyrène’s bars during his time in London, and Eric has been a mentor to him ever since. We are thrilled to be working closely together, representing their whole portfolio in the Netherlands.
When Eric and Anna met, Anna got introduced to a side of wine that was new to her. Together with Eric, she was traveling through regions like the Loire, Burgundy, Savoie, and the Jura, visiting iconic Jura producers working small vineyards by hand and left the wine nearly untouched in the cellar – radically different from the ‘control’ she was used to having, working for more conventional estates. She fell in love with these kinds of wines and ultimately decided to put the Master of Wine Program aside and focus on becoming a true vigneron.
Andrea Franchetti introduced her to Mount Etna in Sicily in 2005, where he owned the acclaimed Passopisciaro, an estate that was very important in putting Etna ‘on the map’, by showcasing its capability of producing fine wines, vinifying single parcels/contrade to emphasise the subtleties of terroirs (even though this is not encouraged by the DOC). After visiting Etna the same year, Anna and Eric quickly became enamoured with the extreme terroir and indigenous varieties and felt the urge to start making wine here.
Vino Di Anna was born in 2008, in the corner of the Franchetti owned Passopisciaro winery, where Anna was experimenting with vinifying grapes from two rented plots without any intervention. The name originated from an inside joke the cellar workers had teasingly played on her when they labelled her two barrels as ‘Aceto di Anna’ (meaning Anna’s vinegar). In 2011 they purchased their 250-year-old Palmento – a traditional winery building from Sicily – just outside the town of Solicchiata and they acquired their first parcels in Contrada Crasà with old vine Nerello Mascelese.
In 2012 Eric travelled through Georgia where he became fascinated by the qvevri amphorae. When he returned, he got sent a Qvevri as a gift which after experimentation, has led to a whole line of unique Qvevri wines. The Qvevri are handmade and come from one of the last few remaining artisanal qvevri makers, Zaaliko Bodjadze, based in Imereti, Georgia. He works with pure clay sourced from high in the Caucasus Mountains and is a true expert in his craft.
Today, the family wine estate farms around 8 hectares of vineyards across the northern slopes, at altitudes ranging from 650 to 1200 m in: Contrada Crasà, Contrada Rampante, Contrada Pirao, Contrada Filici, Contrada Nave and Contrada Tartaraci.
The reds are primarily made from Nerello Mascalese, with a small amount of Nerello Cappuccio and Alicante (Grenache).
The whites are Grecanico, Catarratto, and Carricante, with some Insolia and Minella Bianca as well. The vineyards are located on mineral and rich volcanic soils, the result of decomposed volcanic black lava rock. The Alberello vineyards are managed by hand using organic and biodynamic practices, with a lot of care for biodiversity and life in the soil. All the wines undergo spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeast and are bottled without fining or filtration. Sulphur is only used in some instances and always at least 3 months before bottling.
We highly recommend their whites as we think of them as the best on Mount Etna. Special mention to their new Palmento Rosso 2022, a fruit bomb. The best wine we tried so far in 2024.
Terroir
Vino di Anna is based in the area of Solicchiata, high on the northern slopes of the Etna. The terraced vineyards range from about 700 m – 1200 meters in altitude. The north slope benefits from the shielding of the Nebrodi Mountains against the northern winds. The water runoff is more moderate than the other slopes, allowing for better water storage during the growing season. The major beneficiary of this process is the area between the towns of Solicchiata and Randazzo (where they have most of their parcels). The wind from the northeast blows steam from the vents to the southeast creating a shadow that serves to reduce evaporation. The north slope of Mount Etna is considered the best area for growing red grape varieties like Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio. This is due to several factors, including exposure to direct sunlight throughout the day, and soil is relatively young and generally richer in nutrients than other areas, which can help to promote healthy vine growth and grape development resulting in wines with great fruit and structure. Vino di Anna’s vineyards are in different Contrade; near Linguaglossa to Piano Filici where they farm the secluded Don Alfio vineyard. From Contrada Rampante, onto Contrada Pirao, which touches the National Park at an altitude of 1000 meters, ending on the north-western side of the volcano with vineyards in Contrade Nave and Tartaraci (where they still manage to grow Nerello Mascelese and achieve ripeness).
