The Future of Etna is...white?
Updated: 6 hours ago
In September 2025 I was invited to ‘Etna Days’ a four-day immersion in the wines of Europe’s largest still-active volcano. It is complementary to the so-called Contrade dell’Etna, a delightful scrum of producers and wines and the brain child of Passopisciaro’s Andrea Franchetti, who made the clever link between the Contrade and single vineyards analogous to Burgundy. It became one of Italy’s most successful marketing ploys in recent times.
Contrade dell’Etna was as joyful as impossible to navigate for a journalist like me with a laptop in one hand and a glass in the other trying to taste while literally hundreds of people are milling around from one stand to the next.
But thanks to the reanimation of the consorzio of Etna four years ago out of its decades-long lethargy, Etna Days was set up to the benefit of ‘harassed’ journalists, with sommeliers pouring the wines in the comfortable function rooms of Etna’s very own golf resort hotel.
