The Tenuta delle Terre Nere 2020 Etna Rosso Calderara Sottana has a savory, almost autumnal personality with tobacco, wet moss, spice and dark fruit. It stands apart from the other wines in the portfolio thanks to those darker fruit qualities. Marc De Grazia uses the unusual word "feline" to describe a mouthfeel that is long and sleek. I notice the dry, silky nature of the elegant tannins.

Tenuta delle Terre Nere selected three single-vineyard wines that it classifies as Grande Terroir Ellittico; the 2016 Etna Rosso Calderara Sottana is one of those three wines. The wine does indeed show a higher level of complexity and increased depth that is especially apparent in the mouth. The wine has a firm tannin backbone that bodes very well for its future evolution. This is a crisp, sharp and structured Etna red wine. Nerello Mascalese is blended with 2% Nerello Cappuccio. Some 14,000 bottles were made.

The 2014 Etna Rosso Calderara Sottana is the most polished and finessed of the three single-Contrada wines made by Tenuta delle Terre Nere. This is the most Burgundian wine, if you will. The bouquet is precise and elegant with fresh berry nuances followed by smoke, tar, balsam herb and pressed rose bud. Yet, the wine offers enormous freshness and enriched, compact flavors. You get that trademark mouthfeel that is so beautifully stitched together with a very fine and silky quality of tannin. This is a real stunner.

The 2013 Etna Rosso Calderara Sottana shows a different personality compared to Tenuta delle Terre Nere's other single-vineyard expressions. Calderara Sottana offers more balsamic definition with wild fennel, rosemary spring, dark fruit and scorched earth. To my palate, it is the most ethereal of the bunch and the hardest to pin down given that the aromas are in constant evolution and flux. Pretty fruit and berry tones fill in the back. Despite the enormous definition presented on the bouquet, the wine is more immediate and direct in the mouth. Bright berry is followed by ash, smoke and dusty tannins. This vintage feels less complex overall but it should age nicely.