Etna and its chief variety Nerello Mascarese is often compared to Nebbiolo with Mediterranean swagger. Think scents of camphor and liquorice strap melded to kirsch and a waft of the garrigue, all in one. Think a spindly latticework of tannins and bright acidity that defy the region’s deep southern location by virtue of a magical confluence, volcanic soils and altitude. There is no better exemplar of these virtues than Girolamo Russo. Each wine, an embodiment of a different sciara, or lava flow. Each sciara, the foundation of a different contrada, or single sub-region.

Set on the north slope of the mountain, at an altitude of 650-780 metres above sea-level, the winery’s vineyards cover 18 hectares, surrounded by hazelnut and olive groves.

Re-established by Giuseppe Russo in 2005, and dedicated to the memory of his father Girolamo, the winery is a powerful expression of Giuseppe’s desire to respect and conserve his family’s traditional values, but interpreting those values in a new and personal way, introducing and developing new approaches to winemaking, but remaining in the village of his birth, Passopisciaro – the centre of the recent renaissance in the great red wines of Etna.