Benanti is a family winery on Etna's southeast flank, anchored at Tenuta Monte Serra in Viagrande and run today by brothers Antonio and Salvino Benanti. Their estate is the only one to farm vines on every slope of the volcano, with parcels in Milo, Castiglione di Sicilia, Randazzo and Santa Maria di Licodìa feeding contrada-specific bottlings of Carricante, Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio. Visits run Tuesday to Sunday by reservation.
Sicily
Wines for this winery are still being curated. Check back as the UK retailer selection expands.
Bookable experiences, curated by our editors. External booking where marked.
Two-hour guided walk of the estate and Monte Serra vineyard followed by a tasting of four Tradizionali and Contrade wines from different Etna slopes paired with a selection of local food specialities. Italian language. Start times 10:30 or 16:00.
Book this experienceGuided tour of the estate and Monte Serra vineyard followed by a five-wine Contrade tasting paired with a four-course contemporary lunch (aperitivo, antipasti, primo, dessert) by the resident chefs. Italian language. Lunch sitting from 13:00.
Book this experienceEstate tour plus a five-wine Contrade tasting expanded with the iconic Etna Bianco Superiore Pietra Marina, paired with a four-course contemporary lunch by the resident chefs. Italian language. Lunch sitting from 13:00.
Book this experienceTwo-and-a-half hour estate tour and tasting of five of the most representative Benanti wines, with a focus on the Icone line, paired with a five-course contemporary lunch. Italian language.
Book this experienceTwo-hour guided walk of the estate and Monte Serra vineyard followed by a tasting of four Tradizionali and Contrade wines from different Etna slopes paired with a selection of local food specialities. Italian language. Start times 10:30 or 16:00.
Book this experienceThe Benanti family's link to Etna goes back to 1734, but the modern winery was founded by Giuseppe Benanti in 1988, when he revived his grandfather's old podere at the foot of Monte Serra in Viagrande. The original Giuseppe had bottled wine from the same vineyards in the late 1800s; his namesake set the project on a different course in the 1990s, focusing on indigenous Etna varieties at a time when international grapes were the fashionable choice in Sicily.
Benanti now farms vineyards on each of Etna's four flanks, the only Etna producer to do so. Sites in Viagrande and Santa Maria di Licodìa face south and southeast, Milo sits on the high east slope where rainfall and Carricante converge, Castiglione di Sicilia gives the cool north-facing reds, and Randazzo's Calderara Sottana adds an older-vine northern voice. The Selezione Contrade range bottles each of these parcels separately so the differences between the slopes are not blurred into a single estate red or white.
Three wines anchor the range. Pietra Marina, an Etna Bianco Superiore from Contrada Rinazzo in Milo, is among the longest-lived Carricante whites in Italy and gave the variety its modern reference. Serra della Contessa Particella No. 587 is an Etna Rosso Riserva drawn from a small block of pre-phylloxera Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio at Monte Serra, aged for sixty months. Rovittello Particella No. 341 is the northern counterpart, a Riserva from a pre-phylloxera plot at Contrada Dafara Galluzzo in Castiglione di Sicilia, and a Wine Spectator Top 100 wine in the 2017 vintage.
Antonio and Salvino Benanti, Giuseppe's sons, took over the estate in 2012 and now run viticulture and cellar work between them. The estate farms organically and ferments with indigenous yeasts; Noblesse, the first Carricante metodo classico on Etna, was released by the family in 2002 and now sits alongside a Nerello Mascalese rosé, Lamorèmio, in the traditional-method line.
Visits start at the nineteenth-century estate and walk through the historic Palmento, the Quadreria (the old cellar that now houses the family's painting collection), and the Bottaia where the reds rest in barrel. Sommelier-led tastings cover the Tradizionali range and the Selezione Contrade, with longer formats opening up Pietra Marina and the Riserve. Tours run Tuesday to Sunday by reservation, in Italian and English.
Editorially verified by ItalianWines.co.uk.
Plate I · SICILY
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Booking required 
39
