Red Grape · Sicily
The other Nerello: darker, softer and fruitier than Mascalese, capped at 20 per cent of Etna Rosso and rarely allowed out on its own.
Nerello Cappuccio is the softer, darker partner to Nerello Mascalese on Mount Etna, where it is permitted up to 20 per cent of the blend in Etna Rosso. Rarely bottled alone, it supplies the colour, flesh and immediate fruit that its more austere and tannic sibling withholds.
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Clearing it up
Etna, mostly the south-eastern slopes
Etna, all four slopes
The anchor fact: Nerello Cappuccio and Nerello Mascalese are two different grape varieties, not two names for one. Etna Rosso must be at least 80 per cent Mascalese, with Cappuccio capped at 20.
Taste · Where it sits
Forget scores out of five. Here’s Nerello Cappuccio described against grapes you already know.
Fuller-feeling than Nerello Mascalese without being heavy, which is precisely the job it does in Etna Rosso. It fills the middle that Mascalese leaves hollow.
The softest tannins of any grape on the mountain, and the reason a young Etna Rosso is drinkable at all. Set against Mascalese's austerity the contrast is the whole point of the blend.
Enough freshness to keep the softer fruit lively, though it never reaches the cut of Carricante grown on the same slopes. The saline finish does as much work as the acid.
Cherry and black fruit arrive at once rather than needing years to emerge, the opposite of Mascalese's slow reveal, and they sit against pepper and Mediterranean herbs.
Key flavours
The map
Nerello Cappuccio is medium-bodied, soft tannin, mapped against other red grapes you can buy. The closer a grape sits, the more its weight and grip resemble Nerello Cappuccio.
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Serving guide
Serve at
15-17°C
A touch cooler than a full red keeps the pepper and floral notes forward rather than the alcohol.
Decant
No
Little to gain. The tannins are already soft and the aromatics are better fresh.
Glass
Burgundy Glass
A Burgundy bowl suits the perfumed, medium-bodied style better than a tall Bordeaux glass.
Drink within
3-5 days
Approachable from release, unlike the Mascalese-dominated bottlings alongside it.
Cellar
3-8 years
Five to ten years in a blend; varietal bottlings are usually best inside five.
On the table
Start with the home-table matches that made the grape, then browse the full cuisine library.
The Etna Sunday plate
Soft tannins and a herbal edge suit roast pork far better than a firmly structured red would, and the wine's salinity picks up the crackling.
Baked Sicilian pasta
The baked ring pasta of Palermo carries ragu, peas and cheese, and needs a red with fruit and freshness rather than grip to stop the dish turning heavy.
From the volcano's own city
Norma belongs to Catania at Etna's foot, and the peppery, herbal side of Cappuccio meets the fried aubergine without the tannic clash a bigger red would bring.
Buy it · three to start with
A curated trio across the price range, then every Nerello Cappuccio on sale in the UK right now.
Special occasion
1 retailer
Etna
1 retailer
£134.10
Why this one: From ungrafted pre-phylloxera vines in Contrada Calderara Sottana, a bottle that shows what Etna's oldest plantings can do.
12 of 13 bottles
3 retailers
Etna
3 retailers
£22.41
£28.44
2 retailers
Etna
2 retailers
£21.35
2 retailers
Etna
2 retailers
£22.30
£23.47
2 retailers
Sicilia
2 retailers
£21.70
£24.94
2 retailers
Etna
2 retailers
£26.63
2 retailers
Etna
2 retailers
£28.03
1 retailer
Etna
1 retailer
£20.50
1 retailer
Etna
1 retailer
£21.83
1 retailer
Etna
1 retailer
£22.24
1 retailer
Appellation TBD
1 retailer
£23.18
1 retailer
Etna
1 retailer
£25.39
1 retailer
Etna
1 retailer
£66.70
Denominations
The appellations where Nerello Cappuccio plays a starring role.
Where it grows
Volcanic Nerello on Etna's black terraces, sun-baked Nero d'Avola on the south-east coast, fortified Marsala in Trapani and UNESCO Zibibbo on Pantelleria Read more
Calabria is the toe of Italy where Cirò Rosso stands as the south's most historic red, framed by the Pollino, the Sila, and 780 km of two-sea coast. Read more
The terroir
Nerello Cappuccio is grown in very few places, so its range comes from altitude on one volcano and from a single outpost across the strait in Calabria.
Etna, south-eastern slopes
Province of Catania
The heartland: deep colour, soft tannin and peppery herbal lift, mostly destined for Etna Rosso
Siracusa and Ragusa
South-eastern Sicily, off the volcano
Warmer sites giving rounder, earlier-drinking fruit without the volcanic salinity
Palizzi
The southern tip of Calabria
A rare mainland outpost, permitted in the local IGT
Editorial
Nerello Cappuccio takes its name from the leafy hood that often wraps its bunches, a cappuccio fogliare distinctive enough to separate it from Sicily's other dark grapes on sight. Its one documented synonym is Nerello Mantellato, the cloaked Nerello, which describes the same thing. The vine carries a medium-large trilobate leaf and a compact conical bunch of small, intensely bloomy blue-black berries whose pulp is richer in colour and aroma than most.
Etna Rosso must be at least 80 per cent Nerello Mascalese, with Nerello Cappuccio capped at 20. One grape supplies the frame, the other fills it in.
On the Etna DOC blendThe comparison that matters is with Nerello Mascalese, and the two are routinely confused because they share a name. They are separate varieties with opposite jobs. Cappuccio gives deeper pigment, softer tannin, more immediate fruit and a herbaceous, peppery, faintly balsamic scent; Mascalese gives structure, austerity and length. Expect intense ruby with violet edges, cherry and black fruit, pepper and Mediterranean herbs, a medium body and a saline finish.
Under the Etna DOC rules, Etna Rosso must be at least 80 per cent Nerello Mascalese, with Nerello Cappuccio or Mantellato permitted up to 20 per cent. That ceiling explains why so few varietal bottlings exist: the grape was planted to round out a blend rather than to stand alone. It also appears in the Faro and Mamertino denominations, and Italy grows only 508 hectares of it in total, concentrated on Etna's south-eastern slopes with outliers in Siracusa and Ragusa.
It is authorised in Sicily and in Calabria, where it is permitted in Palizzi IGT on the peninsula's southern tip. A handful of Etna growers now bottle it varietally to show what it does unaccompanied, and Tenuta delle Terre Nere is among the estates whose Etna Rosso relies on it. For the white half of the mountain see Carricante, and our guide to Etna wines sets the whole red picture out.
Good to know
They are two separate grape varieties that share a name and a mountain. Nerello Mascalese is the structured, tannic, pale-hued backbone of Etna Rosso and must make up at least 80 per cent of the blend. Nerello Cappuccio is deeper in colour, softer in tannin and fruitier, and is capped at 20 per cent. In practice one supplies the frame and the other fills it in.
The name refers to the leafy hood that often wraps the bunch, a cappuccio fogliare in Italian. Its only documented synonym, Nerello Mantellato, means the cloaked Nerello and describes exactly the same feature. It is a rare case of an Italian grape being named for how the vine looks in the vineyard rather than for a place, a person or the colour of the wine.
Yes, but they are scarce. The grape was planted as a blending component for Etna Rosso, where it is capped at 20 per cent, so most of the crop never appears under its own name. A small number of Etna growers now bottle it on its own to show its softer, fruitier character, and those bottles are the quickest way to understand what it contributes to the blend.
Intense ruby with violet edges, and noticeably darker than Nerello Mascalese. The nose runs to cherry and black fruit with pepper, Mediterranean herbs and a floral, faintly balsamic lift. The palate is medium-bodied, soft and fresh, with docile tannins and the saline finish that Etna's volcanic soils tend to give. It is an approachable wine rather than a structured one.
About 508 hectares nationally, almost all of it in Sicily and concentrated on the south-eastern slopes of Etna, with smaller plantings in the provinces of Siracusa and Ragusa. It is also authorised in Calabria, where it is permitted in Palizzi IGT. That makes it a genuinely rare variety, and one whose fortunes are tied closely to the revival of Etna as a wine region.
Explore by style
Jump to the editorial guide for each style this grape turns up in.
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