Graci

History

Graci was founded by Alberto Aiello Graci, a Sicilian who left a career in finance to return to the island and build a wine estate on Etna's northern flank. The project took shape in the mid-2000s, a period when serious outside investment was beginning to arrive on the volcano and the contrada system was gaining traction as a framework for understanding Etna's fragmented vineyard landscape. Graci came at that moment not as a hobbyist venture but as a deliberate attempt to identify and work the best old-vine sites available on the north slope, particularly around Passopisciaro and the higher reaches above it. The estate has remained under family control and has grown incrementally, with the focus staying on nerello mascalese for reds and rosato, and carricante for whites.

Vineyards

The estate's holdings are concentrated on Etna's north slope, where volcanic soils are predominantly sandy and mineral-rich, with low organic matter and high drainage. Altitude is a defining factor: the vineyards sit at elevations that push 700 to 900 metres in places, producing a diurnal range that preserves acidity even in warm years. The flagship single-contrada sites are Arcuria and Muganazzi (sometimes spelled Munganazzi), both planted predominantly to old nerello mascalese on pre-phylloxera franc de pied vines, a common and significant feature of Etna's north slope where the volcanic substrate historically deterred the louse. Carricante, the white grape of Etna, is also grown for the single-vineyard Muganazzi bianco. Farming is documented as organic, consistent with the broader shift across serious Etna producers over the past decade.

Winemaking

Graci's approach in the cellar is restrained by design. Fermentations rely on native yeasts, and the style across both reds and whites prioritises freshness and definition over extraction or weight. Nerello mascalese is handled with care given its structural delicacy: the grape has natural high acidity and moderate tannin, and heavy-handed winemaking tends to coarsen it. Aging for the Etna Rosso and single-vineyard reds uses large neutral oak vessels, avoiding the fruit-masking effect of new barriques. The Arcuria rosso typically sees longer elevage than the base Etna Rosso and shows the greater site specificity of that contrada: a slightly more saline, nervy profile compared to broader expressions of north-slope nerello. The whites, made from carricante, are fermented and aged in ways that retain the grape's characteristic mineral edge and citrus-driven structure. The rosato fits the Etna model well: pale, taut, and dry, made from nerello mascalese with minimal skin contact.