Tenuta delle Terre Nere San Lorenzo Etna Rosso 2024
Tenuta delle Terre Nere San Lorenzo Etna Rosso 2024
96+ points Vinous Media
Drinking window: 2028 - 2040
The 2024 Etna Rosso San Lorenzo is darkly floral, with notes of ash, crushed rocks, tangerine zest and sage. It's impressively fresh despite its silky weight and incredible depth of red berry fruit. A liquid violet concentration slowly saturates toward the close. The 2024 reveals a collage of autumnal spices under an air of lavender pastille as hints of subtle citrus neatly balance its firming tannins. This is absolutely stunning.
The 2024s from Tenuta delle Terre Nere are nearly hedonistic in character yet remain expertly balanced. They are a fascinating follow-up to the 2023s, which were all about finesse and energy. The contrast speaks to Marco de Grazia’s ability to let the growing season come through without sacrificing balance.
Among the single-vineyard releases, the Etna Rosso Bocca d’Orzo continues to impress with each passing vintage, followed closely by the San Lorenzo. The Etna Rosso Prephylloxera, typically the most tightly wound bottling upon release, was highly expressive this year. The 2024 vintage also marks the inaugural release of a new Etna Bianco Superiore from Caselle, a cru on the eastern slopes in Milo. The crystalline, powerful 2024 highlights why this sector continues to grow in popularity.
Beginning with the 2026 vintage, updated DOC regulations will finally permit producers to include a wine’s specific township (comune) of origin on its label. This is a bureaucratic victory de Grazia has championed for a long time in an effort to better distinguish Etna’s various terroirs. As de Grazia commented, “I see it as my responsibility to help pave the path for Etna.” The current system simply falls short, as terroir can change drastically even within the boundaries of a single contrada. Tenuta delle Terre Nere remains both a benchmark on the volcano and an important force shaping its next generation. - Eric Guido September 2026
Winery:Etna Rosso San Lorenzo comes from 8 hectares of vineyards in the district of the same name in the municipality of Randazzo. In some plots the vines are more than 70 years old, the altitude is 750 meters above sea level, the soil is almost pure volcanic ash.
The terroir of Contrada San Lorenzo was originated from lava flows and volcano-clastic deposits related to the effusive and explosive activity of the Elliptic volcano approximately between 60,000 and 15,000 years ago. Although very young in geological terms, the Elliptic soil is the oldest surface layer where it is possible to plant in the appellation. The reason is simple: millennia of lava flows have buried the oldest soils, leaving, in fact, only small and rare portions of the soil of the Elliptic. On the north side of Etna there are five or six Contradas that have “elliptical terroir”. Three of them, however, are spurious, as the igneous nature of the Elliptic is mixed with alluvial soils of a sedimentary nature due to the overflow of the Alcantara river. On the north side of Etna only three Contradas are “pure” elliptical terroir: Bocca d’Orzo, Calderara and San Lorenzo.
San Lorenzo is the Contrada that marks the North West border of the D.O.C. Etna and therefore has the coldest climate of the D.O.C. This climate combined with soils especially rich in ash, creates a unique and unrepeatable combination. Wines that at the same time enclose vigor and generosity in a sumptuous tension. Purebred wines.
Appellation: Etna Rosso D.O.C.
Production area: Municipality of Randazzo
Grapes: Nerello Mascalese.
Vineyard extension: 8 hectares.
Production: 6 tons per hectare.
Soil: volcanic, volcanic ash with black pumice.
Exposure: north side of Etna at 700-850 meters above sea level
Age of the vines: from 50 to 100 years.
Annual production: 6,000 bottles.
