I like the ashy and earthy hints here. Cherry stones and cloves, too. Medium-bodied, tight and firm, with tannins that gently grip you. Try from 2024.

The 2014 Etna Rosso Cavanera Rovo delle Coturnie shows the graceful and elegant style that we are seeing among these new releases from Firriato. The wine's power and heft are downplayed to make room instead for light cassis, wild rose, violets and bitter almond aromas. The mouthfeel is silky and compact, offering some smoke, tar and crushed volcanic stone on the close.

The 2013 Etna Rosso Cavanera Rovo Delle Coturnie (made with a traditional blend of Nerellos Mascalese and Cappuccio) offers a slightly aged and dusty quality of fruit that makes the wine taste older than it really is. Even though there is little primary fruit, you get lots of mineral definition and pencil shaving-like aromas. The mouthfeel is lean and compact. Some 15,000 bottles were made.

The 2011 Etna Rosso Cavanera Rovo Delle Coturnie is a generous and relatively full bodied expression from Etna. This wine is redolent of pressed violets, toasted almond, crushed granite stone, cola and licorice. There is a subtle tightness to the tannins that should relax with more months of bottle aging. I look forward to watching this wine's evolution over the years to come.

The 2010 Etna Rosso Cavanera Rovo delle Coturnie is one of the volcano’s biggest and blackest wines. The blend is 80% Nerello Mascalese and 20% Nerello Cappuccio and the oak regime includes nine months in both barrique and large Slavonian oak casks. Soft oak spice and jammy fruit is offset by firm tannic structure. Like the other wines in this winery’s portfolio, those oak tones are too much of a good thing. Firriato’s recently restored winery on Etna sits on the foundations of an ancient palmento (or ancient crush pad and fermentation area). Drink 2016-2022. The ultimate Sicilian power couple, Salvatore Di Gaetano and the ever-alluring Vinzia Novara are the brains, brawn and beauty behind one of Sicily’s most successful, but highly individualistic brands. Firriato has always marched to its own drum. They are part of the first wave of bigger companies to invest on Etna, and they are the first to make wine on the arid island of Favignana off the Trapani coastline. The Firriato winemaking style is, to my mind, the most oak-forward and “international” in Sicily today. Importer: Soilair Selection, www.soilairselection.com