Tenuta delle Terre Nere sits on the northern slope of Mount Etna outside Randazzo, in nine contradas where Marc de Grazia has assembled old, high-altitude Nerello Mascalese vineyards from 2002 onward. Forty-five hectares stretch between 600 and 1,000 metres above sea level, with separate bottlings from Calderara Sottana, Guardiola, Feudo di Mezzo, Santo Spirito and Moganazzi under the Etna DOC.
Sicily
Bookable experiences, curated by our editors. External booking where marked.
Cellar tour and seated tasting at Contrada Calderara on the northern flank of Etna. Visits cover the Etna DOC Classico range and a selection of single-contrada Premier and Grand Cru wines depending on availability. Booked by email; the format and length are arranged with the visits team.
Book this experienceExtended cellar visit and tasting designed for trade buyers, sommeliers and press. Arranged in advance with the export team and tailored to the visitor's interest in the Premier and Grand Cru bottlings. Booked by email.
Book this experienceCellar tour and seated tasting at Contrada Calderara on the northern flank of Etna. Visits cover the Etna DOC Classico range and a selection of single-contrada Premier and Grand Cru wines depending on availability. Booked by email; the format and length are arranged with the visits team.
Book this experienceThe estate took shape in 2002, when Marc de Grazia, then better known as a Tuscan and Piedmontese négociant, started buying parcels of old Nerello Mascalese on Etna's northern flank. He coined the now-familiar phrase 'Burgundy of the Mediterranean' for the volcano, then put it into bottle by vinifying each contrada separately, a practice that was almost unheard of at the time and has since defined the Etna conversation.
Forty-five hectares are now split across thirty plots in nine contradas, ranging between 600 and 1,000 metres above sea level. Most vines are between 50 and 100 years old; about seven hectares have been replanted, while just under one hectare in Calderara Sottana, named La Vigna di Don Peppino after the farmer who tended it for almost seventy years, escaped phylloxera and stands above 140 years of age, still ungrafted in pure black volcanic soil.
The bottling map reads like a Burgundian climat list. The Classico tier sits under the Etna DOC: Etna Bianco from Carricante and Catarratto, Etna Rosato and Etna Rosso from Nerello Mascalese with a small share of Nerello Cappuccio. Above it sit the Premier Cru wines from Feudo di Mezzo, Moganazzi, Santo Spirito and Guardiola, the latter from what Skurnik flags as the highest red-grape vineyards in Europe. The Grand Cru is Calderara Sottana, including a Pre-Phylloxera bottling from the Don Peppino parcel that has set the modern reference for Etna red.
Farming has been organic from the first vintage. Cellar work is deliberately restrained, with native-yeast fermentations and ageing in large used French oak rather than new barriques, so that the differences between contradas stay legible in the glass.
The estate is set up to receive visitors by appointment year-round. Tasting flights move through the Classico and the single-contrada wines in the cellar at Contrada Calderara, and longer professional sessions can be arranged with the export team. Bookings go through [email protected].
Editorially verified by ItalianWines.co.uk.
Plate I · SICILY
Tenuta delle Terre Nere's current bottle selection is led by Brunello di Montalcino DOCG. The clearest grape signal comes from Nerello Mascalese and Carricante.
Est. 2002 
8 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Booking required 
