Tenuta delle Terre Nere

Founded in 2002 by Marc de Grazia, an American-Italian wine merchant who had spent decades selecting Italian wines for export before deciding to make his own. He purchased land on the northern slopes of Mount Etna and released his first wines from the 2002 vintage, though he considers 2004 - when the estate gained its own cellars - the true birth of Terre Nere. The estate now covers roughly 43 hectares of vineyards plus 150 olive trees, certified organic since 2010.

De Grazia was the driving force behind the contrada system on Etna, arguing that individual crus deserved recognition the way Burgundy's climats do - he even adopted Burgundy-shaped bottles, a move the rest of the region eventually followed. The key contrade include Calderara Sottana (11-12 ha, of which 1.5 ha is pre-phylloxera ungrafted vines over 140 years old), Guardiola (2.1 ha, almost entirely pre-phylloxera, the highest-altitude red-grape vineyards in Europe), Santo Spirito, and Feudo di Mezzo. The primary grape is Nerello Mascalese for reds and Carricante for whites. Vinification follows a Burgundian model: 10-15 day maceration, malolactic fermentation, aging in oak (roughly 25% new), bottled around 18 months later. The estate now produces some 70 different micro-vinifications.