$44.99 with shipping included on 6 bottles or more

62-year old Salvo Foti is one of the Etna wine growing region’smost important figures.  So important, you could say, without Salvo’s benevolent assistance, some of the most important wineries of Etna, names like Benanti, Terre Nere, Biondi and Gulfi, might not even exist.  He’s been, for nearly a generation, a tireless and passionate advocate for the wines of the volcano and has worked or consulted with just about everyone on the mountain at one time another. He’s shown them how to farm on an active volcano, make a good wine from those grapes, and then what to do with that wine once it was in a bottle and ready to go out and greet the great wide world.  It was only after over 20 years helping others bring others’ Etna dreams to fruition that Salvo decided to create his own cellar- I Vigneri- in 2001.  But unlike anyone else on the mountain, Foti’s vision was not just to hang his own shingle out and cash in, but to honor the ancient traditions of farming on Mount Etna and support the scores of small growers slaving to earn a living in the process.  He had a precedent to follow.  In the town of Catania, Foti’s birthplace andthe heart of the Etna region, in 1435, the Maestranza dei Vigneri (The Grape-Growers Guild) was founded as a sort of cooperative business by the local grape-growers.  This self-governing and very old fashioned way of making wine has survived here for more than 500 years.  Foti’s take is slightly more modern. He calls it ‘I Vigneri’ (The Winegrowers).  To become a member of I Vigneri, a grower must farm organically and work entirely by hand. The grapes must come solely from the allocations the local farmers receive for their own use from the owners of the vineyards (sharecropping is another Etna tradition) and those grapes are made into wine collectively, with Foti overseeing the process.  Thanks to its success (and Foti’s charisma) the I Vigneri project has meant job security and a modest living for many small farmers as well as a healthy, sustainable environment for the future. And, hey, there’s the bonus of having Salvo Foti, the best-known winemaker on Etna, making your wine each vintage!  Foti’s Il Vigneri wines are made with a secret recipe passed down from his great grandfather in what’s called a Palmento,  an open cellar with no refrigeration or electricity, anchored by a giant hand-operated wooden screw press.  The grapes are trod by foot on a concrete floor and are fed by gravity into a variety of vessels in a cellar below where they are fermented, completely spontaneously on their own yeasts, in a mishmash of containers made of steel, terracotta, old wood or sometimes even Etna lava stone.  All the winemaking decisions are governed by the phases of the moon, and everything used in the cellar is sourced locally and designed solely to support the local economy.  The winery produces several whites and several reds designed to showcase particular exposures on the mountain.  The 1000-case production of I Vigneri Etna Rosso is the single blend created from all the various terroirs of Etna and consists of roughly 90% of the local Nerello Mascalese and 10% Nerello Cappuccio. A portion of the finished wines from every vintage goes back to the growers for their own consumption and the rest sold to earn money.  Some, I hope, will be sold to you!  The just-arrived, thoroughly quaffable 2023 I Vigneri is a gorgeous hit of cherry-raspberry confit underlain by layers of smoky mineral, fragrant spice, pipe tobacco and some lovely florals.  Bright, fresh and deceptively easy to drink, it’s a supremely elegant and food friendly red born in lava and ready for your table.  A better companion to a bowl of pasta sauced with tomatoes, garlic and bit of pepperoncini you will never find, and you’ll love it with grilled chicken, pork or even salmon too!  Our allocation is small but we think a half case of this in your cellar would be just about right, for now and for drinking over the next six or eight years.