Pietradolce sits high on the northern slopes of Mount Etna at Solicchiata, a hamlet of Castiglione di Sicilia, working thirty hectares of bush-trained vines between 650 and 950 metres. The Faro family planted the estate in 2005 around plots of pre-phylloxera Nerello Mascalese and Carricante and now bottles a parcel-driven range that reads almost like a contrada atlas of high-altitude Etna.
Sicily
Visit experiences, curated by our editors. Enquire with the winery where booking details are not published.
Guided cellar visit at Pietradolce's Solicchiata estate covering the lava-stone vat cellar and the underground barrel room, followed by a tasting of the house range and, where stock allows, the contrada and Archineri cru bottlings. The estate runs visits by appointment and books directly via its own contacts channel.
EnquireGuided cellar visit at Pietradolce's Solicchiata estate covering the lava-stone vat cellar and the underground barrel room, followed by a tasting of the house range and, where stock allows, the contrada and Archineri cru bottlings. The estate runs visits by appointment and books directly via its own contacts channel.
EnquirePietradolce was founded in 2005 by Michele Faro and his brother Mario, sons of Venerando Faro, whose family has run the Piante Faro nursery group in eastern Sicily for decades. The brothers spent their first vintages buying up neglected plots of pre-phylloxera Nerello Mascalese and Carricante in Solicchiata before consolidating the holdings into a single contrada-driven estate.
The vineyards stretch across thirty hectares of Etna's northern slopes between the Contrade Rampante, Zottorinoto, Santo Spirito and Feudo di Mezzo, sitting at altitudes between 650 and 950 metres above sea level. A further two hectares lie on the eastern flank in Contrada Caselle, in the comune of Milo at 850 metres, where Carricante reaches its most chiselled, saline form. Vines are trained in the traditional alberello sapling shape and many parcels run between ninety and a hundred and fifty years of age, untouched by phylloxera thanks to the volcano's sandy soils.
The cellar in Solicchiata sits in the shadow of the volcano and was conceived as a piece of territorial architecture in its own right. Fermentation takes place in tulip-shaped raw concrete tanks of forty hectolitres, insulated by thick lava-stone walls that hold a steady temperature without forced cooling. The reds then move to an underground barrel room for ageing in oak, while the adjacent caveau holds the estate's library vintages. Works by glass and metal artist Giorgio Vigna and land-art sculptor Alfio Bonanno frame the tasting room, a deliberate reminder that the house treats its labels and its space as part of the same story.
The range is laid out by parcel rather than by tier. The estate cuvees, Pietradolce Etna Bianco DOC, Etna Rosato DOC and Etna Rosso DOC, define the house style: bright, mineral whites built on Carricante, an unusually serious rosato from Nerello Mascalese, and a red that runs more on altitude and acidity than on extraction. Above them sit the contrada bottlings of Rampante, Santo Spirito and Feudo di Mezzo Etna Rosso DOC and the Sant'Andrea Carricante IGT, each speaking for one site rather than a blend. The Archineri Etna Bianco and Etna Rosso are the cru-level expressions of the brand, and at the top sits Vigna Barbagalli, a single-vineyard Etna Rosso drawn from the highest Rampante parcel and produced only in vintages the family considers worthy.
The Faros are vocal about working only with the two native Etna varieties, Carricante and Nerello Mascalese, and the estate describes its farming as organic and territorially driven, even though no certification body is publicly named. Within the wider Etna renaissance, Pietradolce occupies the contrada-purist end of the spectrum: a producer that uses single-vineyard transparency rather than oak or technique to make the case for high-altitude volcanic Sicily.
Editorially verified by ItalianWines.co.uk.
Plate I · SICILY
Pietradolce's current bottle selection is easiest to understand through Carricante and Nerello Mascalese.
Est. 2005 
4 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Walk-ins welcome 
