From a celebrated joint venture between Gaja and Graci, the Idda 2020 Etna Rosso is beautiful in the glass with deep ruby intensity and a vibrant appearance. The bouquet reveals aromas of dried cherry, blue flower, campfire ash and grilled rosemary. There are herbal and floral sensations, along with the volcanic aromas that always come with Etna reds. To the palate, the wine is lean and elegant, showing nice tannic tension. It is firm without being bitter or powdery. Nerello Mascalese sees a 2% component of Nerello Cappuccio in this 34,000-bottle release.

The Idda 2019 Etna Rosso shows depth, length and everything in between. This 2019 vintage benefits from a long and slow growing season, just what the native red grapes of Etna prefer. The spring season saw a lot of rain for ample water reserves, and the weather then transitioned to a dry but not too hot summer season. The late harvest helped to develop structure and linearity in the wine that you taste, thanks to bright fruit nuances of blackberry, plum and a touch of candied orange peel. The wine is light, vertical and otherwise void of any residual heaviness. It finishes with pretty accents of toasted nut and earthy terracotta.

Offering spice, depth and good definition, the Idda 2018 Etna Rosso was born in a challenging vintage. Summer hailstorms damaged much of the yields and meant that fruit management was completed manually and with extra care, cluster by cluster, to make sure only the best bunches remained on the vines. That hard work paid off to produce a delicate, almost subdued expression from powerful Etna in which more attention is given to the soft fruit and berry nuances. The wine sports a fresh and fruit-forward style with streamlined fruit weight and an almost ethereal personality. Spice, tar and resin fill in the rear.

The 2017 Etna Rosso is almost all Nerello Mascalese with a small 10% part of Nerello Cappuccio that makes for an ideal blending partner. This was a scorching-hot vintage, but Gaia Gaja and Alberto Graci tell me that compact basalt rocky soils make for a unique situation in which vine root systems can find ample humidity underground despite dry and sun-drenched soil at the top level. Dig just under the surface, Gaia Gaja tells me, and the soils are cool and moist. This expression is powerful and bold, with dark fruit and dried cherry followed by crushed white pepper (a result of the Nerello Cappuccio) and lots of resiny spice. The tannins are soft and yielding, and there are subtle waves of hot-vintage aromas that appear mostly as scorched earth and black volcanic stone.