Red Grape · Sicily

Nerello Mascalese

Nerello Mascalese is the noble red of Mount Etna: pale and perfumed yet firm, fresh and savoury, a wine of black volcanic soil, high-altitude vineyards and gnarled old bush vines that drinks more like a mountain Nebbiolo than anything else in Sicily.

For wine enthusiasts and connoisseurs in the UK seeking a unique sip that epitomises Mediterranean flair, the Nerello Mascalese [Neh-rel-loh Mas-ka-leh-seh] grape is a must-try. This indigenous Sicilian variety, predominantly grown on the volcanic slopes of Mount Etna, has Greek roots dating back to ancient times. Boasting a complex profile that dances between fruity and spicy, mineral-rich and tannic, Nerello Mascalese wines pair impeccably with quintessentially British dishes like a hearty meat pie or a sumptuous mushroom risotto. Welcome to the alluring world of Nerello Mascalese.

62
Bottles live now
17
UK retailers
5
Denominations

Setting it straight

More than meets the eye

vs
The reality

The volcano in the glass

  • Grip from altitudeFine but firm, chalky tannins and bright acidity come from vines grown as high as 1,000m on Etna's cool slopes.
  • Volcanic, not fruityIts savoury, smoky, saline character is drawn from black basalt, ash and pumice rather than ripe sunshine fruit.
  • Ancient bush vinesMuch of the best fruit comes from low alberello bush vines, many of them decades old, that concentrate flavour and give each contrada its distinct stamp.
  • A cru wineGrowers bottle by contrada (single vineyard), and top examples deepen for a decade or more into tar, tobacco and orange peel.
The myth

Not a soft pale sipper

  • Light means simpleThe pale hue suggests an easy, soft red, but the palate is taut, grippy and mineral instead.
  • Just another Sicilian redIt is the opposite of the dark, plush, sun-baked Nero d'Avola of the lowlands: cooler, paler and far more savoury.
  • Drink it young and coldSerious contrada bottlings are built to age, not to gulp; rushing them wastes the reward.

The anchor fact: Yes, it looks almost translucent in the glass, but Nerello Mascalese is one of Italy's most structured and ageworthy reds, its pale colour a badge of altitude and thin skins, not a sign of a light, simple wine.

Taste · Where it sits

What it’s actually like in the glass

Forget scores out of five. Here’s Nerello Mascalese described against grapes you already know.

BodyMedium
DelicateFull

Medium-bodied and sinewy, lighter on its feet than Sicily's burly Nero d'Avola and framed more like Pinot Noir or Nebbiolo than a heavyweight southern red.

TanninFirm
SoftGripping

Fine-grained yet genuinely firm and chalky, closer to Nebbiolo's serious grip than to a plush, easy Merlot, and a key reason the wine ages so well.

AcidityFresh
SoftRacy

Fresh and mouth-watering thanks to Etna's altitude and cold nights, a nerve rare in southern Italy that also drives the grape's Etna Rosato and traditional-method sparkling.

Fruit & sweetnessTart and dry
SavourySweetly ripe

Bone-dry and savoury, leaning on tart red cherry and wild berry rather than the jammy dark fruit of warmer Sicilian reds like Nero d'Avola.

Key flavours

Red forest berries
Wild strawberry, redcurrant and raspberry, small-berried and fresh, echoing the cold nights high on Etna's slopes.
Cherry
Tart morello and sour cherry, juicy and high-toned rather than sweet, the signature red fruit of young Etna Rosso.
Vanilla
A soft vanilla and sweet-spice note from oak; the best growers keep it faint, favouring large old casks so the volcanic fruit stays in front.
Tobacco
Cured pipe tobacco and dried tea leaf that build with bottle age, alongside the tar and ash of mature Nerello.
Liquorice
A savoury liquorice-root and wild-fennel thread that surfaces with air, part of the smoky, macchia-scrub character the volcano lends the grape.
Structured · Tannic Soft · Approachable Light-bodied Bold · Full Sangiovese Nebbiolo Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon Corvina Cabernet Franc
Nerello Mascalese

The map

Nerello Mascalese is medium-bodied, firm tannin, mapped against other red grapes you can buy. The closer a grape sits, the more its weight and grip resemble Nerello Mascalese.

Nerello Mascalesemedium-bodied, firm tannin
Sangiovesefuller
Nebbiolofuller
Merlotfuller
Cabernet Sauvignonmuch fuller, firmer
Corvinasofter
Cabernet Francsofter

Is this for you?

An honest gut-check

Reach for it when…

A bold red that just works

  • You love pale, perfumed, high-acid reds like Nebbiolo or red Burgundy but want something volcanic and unmistakably Sicilian.
  • You are matching food: its acid and fine tannin flatter everything from pasta alla Norma to duck, tuna and lamb.
  • You want a red with a real sense of place, farmed on black volcanic soil and old bush vines you can taste by contrada.

Maybe skip it if…

You’re after something else tonight

  • You expect a dark, sweet, full-throttle Sicilian red; that is Nero d'Avola, not Nerello Mascalese.
  • You dislike firm tannin and fresh acidity, or want a soft, low-acid crowd-pleaser.
  • You want big oak and jammy fruit; Etna's charm is savoury, mineral and restrained.

Serving guide

Pour it at its best

Serve at

16-18°C

Serve cool, around 16 to 18°C: warmer and the tannin and alcohol turn harsh, colder and the perfume closes up.

Decant

1 hours

Give a young, tannic Etna red an hour in the decanter to settle the grip and lift its ash and dried-herb notes.

Glass

Tulip Glass

Reach for a tulip glass: its narrower rim gathers the wine's delicate, Pinot-like perfume that a wide Barolo bowl would scatter.

Drink within

3-5 days

Village Etna Rosso is delicious young, drinking well from about 3 to 5 years as its fruit turns savoury.

Cellar

5-10 years

Serious contrada and old-vine bottlings reward 5 to 10 years or more, deepening into tar, dried herb and orange peel.

On the table

What to eat with Nerello Mascalese

Start with the home-table matches that made the grape, then browse the full cuisine library.

Pasta alla Norma

Etna's home match

Pasta alla Norma

Grown at the foot of the volcano above Catania, Nerello meets its local hero: its bright acid cuts the tomato and fried aubergine while fine tannin handles the salty ricotta salata.
Peking duck

Fat, meet acid

Peking duck

Like a good red Burgundy, Nerello's high acid and savoury red fruit slice through the duck's richness and chime with the sweet-savoury hoisin and scallion.
Rack of lamb

Herbs and grip

Rack of lamb

Firm, fine-grained tannin frames the pink lamb, while the wine's wild-fennel and macchia-scrub edge echoes a rosemary crust without overwhelming the meat.
Tuna

The sea's red wine

Tuna

Pale and lithe enough for fish, Nerello is a natural with seared tuna: its tart cherry and saline snap flatter the meaty flesh where a heavier red would flatten it.

Browse every pairing

Mexican Mexican
Grilled Meats 5 Mole & Sauces 4 Soups & Stews 3
Indian Indian
Tandoori & Kebabs 3 Biryani & Rice 2 Dals & Pulses 2 Vegetarian 2
Japanese Japanese
Yakitori & Robata 5 Nabe & Hot Pots 1

Buy it · three to start with

Not sure which bottle? Start here

A curated trio across the price range, then every Nerello Mascalese on sale in the UK right now.

The sweet spot

Etna Rosso Contrada Feudo di Mezzo

Etna Rosso Contrada Feudo di Mezzo

Etna

5 retailers

£21.50

View Wine

Why this one: Step up to a single cru: Planeta's bottling from the Feudo di Mezzo contrada, at around 610m on the north slope, tightens the wine into something more mineral, structured and site-specific than a blended village red.

Special occasion

Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso Prephylloxera Calderara Sottana

Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso Prephylloxera Calderara Sottana

Etna

2 retailers

£109.93

View Wine

Why this one: The summit of the grape: Terre Nere's pre-phylloxera cuvee from ungrafted vines well over a century old in the Calderara Sottana contrada, a deep, mineral, endlessly ageworthy statement of old-vine Nerello and volcanic terroir.

12 of 46 bottles

Denominations

Where it earns a name on the label

The appellations where Nerello Mascalese plays a starring role.

EtnaDOC FaroDOC MarsalaDOC PalizziIGT SiciliaDOC

Where it grows

Where Nerello Mascalese grows in Sicily

Sicily wine region

Sicily

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: Sicily holds Italy's widest single-region wine map.

607 wines · 31 denominations
Explore the Sicily guide

The terroir

Nerello Mascalese is a grape defined almost entirely by place. Its heartland is the black slopes of Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, where vineyards climb from about 400m to 1,000m over old lava, ash and pumice, and growers name more than 130 individual contrade (crus) the way Burgundians name their climats. From there the grape reaches the north-eastern tip of Sicily and even crosses the strait into the toe of Calabria.

Etna, the north slope

The northern face of the volcano around Randazzo, Passopisciaro and Castiglione di Sicilia, in eastern Sicily

The classic address for red Etna: high, cool contrade on ancient lava flows give the most perfumed, structured and long-lived Nerello, farmed on ash-dark soils and old alberello bush vines.

Faro, above Messina

The hills behind Messina on Sicily's north-eastern tip

A tiny denomination revived by growers like Palari, where Nerello Mascalese leads a blend with Nocera and Nerello Cappuccio for a rounder, sea-cooled take on the grape away from the volcano.

Palizzi, across the strait

The far south of Calabria, on the Ionian coast facing Sicily

Proof the grape travels: in the warm hills around Palizzi, Nerello Mascalese joins Nerello Cappuccio in firm, savoury, deeply coloured reds, a Calabrian cousin to Etna's paler mountain style.

Editorial

About Nerello Mascalese

When it comes to serving Nerello Mascalese, attention to detail can elevate your drinking experience. For starters, aim for a serving temperature between 16 and 18 degrees Celsius. A large, tulip-shaped glass will allow the wine's nuanced aromas to fully express themselves. If the wine is particularly young or tannic, consider decanting it for at least 45 minutes to an hour before serving. Once opened, a bottle of Nerello Mascalese can last for up to 3-5 days if re-corked and stored in a cool, dark place. For those who wish to age this wine, a well-maintained cellar can keep Nerello Mascalese in optimal conditions for 5-10 years.

Some of Nerello Mascalese's greatest wines come from ungrafted, own-rooted bush vines more than a century old, planted before phylloxera reached Etna in 1881 and still thriving in volcanic sand too loose for the louse to spread.

The pre-phylloxera vineyards of Etna

The grape's history is as rich as its flavour profile. Some scholars believe Nerello Mascalese made its way to Italy during the Greek colonization in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Although originally passed through Calabria, it found its permanent home in Sicily during Roman times, specifically in the volcanic soils of Mount Etna. This unique terroir imbues the grape with its distinctive mineral notes, making it a point of fascination for wine lovers, British or otherwise.

The grape's name is another captivating element. "Nerello" reflects the dark hue of the grape skins, whereas "Mascalese" pays homage to Mascali, a region in Catania where the grape thrives. Mascali's fertile, volcanic soil and strong agricultural tradition offer ideal conditions for the grape, sealing its status as a beloved local variety.

Nerello Mascalese is highly adaptable, capable of reflecting the characteristics of its terroir, which includes volcanic-lava-rich soil, and a unique climate marked by dramatic temperature shifts. It matures late in the season, usually around the second decade of October, adding a layer of complexity to its harvest. Despite the dark implication in its name, the grape has a light-blue skin, making it easily distinguishable from other varieties.

Nerello Mascalese goes by another name among the local Sicilian viticulturists - "Niuriddu Mascalisi." So if you ever hear this term, rest assured that it’s our grape in question.

Good to know

Frequently asked

No, while Nerello Mascalese is predominantly grown in Sicily - especially around the Etna volcano in the province of Catania - it has also started to make its presence felt in other regions of Italy. In particular, there's growing interest in Calabria. However, its deep-rooted connection with Sicilian terroir makes it a signature grape of the region.

No, Nerello Mascalese is not cultivated in Greece. Though some scholars believe the grape was introduced to Italy during the period of Greek colonization around the 8th-7th century B.C., it has primarily grown in Italy, specifically in Sicily.

Nerello Mascalese is often blended with Nerello Cappuccio, another indigenous Sicilian grape, especially in the Etna Rosso wines. The typical blend comprises at least 80% Nerello Mascalese and up to 20% Nerello Cappuccio.

While Nerello Mascalese wines are increasingly available in specialised wine shops, you can also find them online. If you're keen on trying a tipple, you don't have to fly to Sicily to get a bottle. Above, you will find our curated selection.

Yes, Nerello Mascalese is a late-ripening grape, usually harvested around the second week of October. Its late ripening allows for a long growing season, which contributes to its complex flavor profile.

The grape's ability to adapt to its local environment, especially the volcanic soils of Etna, makes it truly unique. Its wines express a strong sense of place, capturing the essence of the terroir they come from.

Explore by style

Wine styles made from Nerello Mascalese

Jump to the editorial guide for each style this grape turns up in.

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