Robert Smyth takes a tour through Sicily’s wine regions while visiting Planeta, a prolific producer with vines and wines spanning the large Italian island.
After having long enjoyed Planeta’s wines from afar, it was a wonderful to finally get the opportunity to visit them in Sicily, and also catch up with their Hungarian winemaker Patricia Tóth.
Driving up the winding roads to Planeta’s winery on the slopes of Mount Etna, mounds of lava from previous eruptions are dramatically piled up by the side of the road. It is reassuring to hear that the lava slowly oozes out of the volcano when it erupts, giving people ample time to get away, as attested by the relatively low number of casualties resulting from when this legendary peak, known locally as A Muntagna (the mountain) or Idda (she), has blown its top. This lava breaks down over time to form the volcanic soils, which are like gold dust in the world of wine, and are full of small stones and stacked with minerals. There are big differences in the soils of the different plots, with stones varying in size and the soils varying in depth, ultimately helping to bring nuances to the wine in the glass.
In 2007, after a long search for the best land for its vines, the Planeta team stopped on the north side of Etna, among the lava flows and the woods that surround Passopisciaro. Here they planted Nerello Mascalese and Carricante vines and in 2012 the winery was also established. The estate now spreads both north and south of the village. To the north, in the middle of the scenic Sciaranuova vineyard, at more than 800 metres above sea level, is a charming building, replete with a tasting room. Today, it is cloudy and the peak of Etna isn’t visible but the view of the vineyards, with their dark, brooding volcanic soils strewn with small stones, which surround the meticulously restored 300-year-old buildings will more than suffice.
The Sciaranuova vineyard actually lies outside the Etna DOC (Denominazione di origine controllata Denominazione di origine), and Planeta’s two wines from here are called Eruzione 1614, a reference to the longest ever eruption of Etna, which lasted a decade until 1624. It came to a halt right on the edge of this vineyard, forming its shape. Incidentally, part of the old terraces have been shaped into a theatre in the vineyard, which hosts the Sciaranuova Festival each summer.
Planeta’s Etna winery lies to the south and is called Feudo di Mezzo after the vineyard of the same name, and is located slap bang in the middle of a lava flow from the 15th century and is suitably well concealed. Talk about location, location, location! Here, Planeta has planted the white grapes of Torreguarino, Pietramarina and Montelaguardia.
Winemaker Patricia Tóth, who hails from Hungary from where I knew her, joins us for a tasting of Planeta’s wines from across Sicily. She initially went to Sicily and Planeta to work for one vintage 20 years ago and has stayed there ever since, working alongside chief winemaker Alessio Planeta, together establishing several new wineries in the Planeta portfolio. Planeta now altogether has six estates and seven wineries dotted around five of Sicily’s key regions.
Sicily is well-known as a melting pot, on which a number of different cultures have left their imprint, and this is also the case with the Planeta family, which itself originates from Spain. Across almost five centuries and 17 generations, the Planeta family has been involved in agriculture, including wine, although it was Alessio’s uncle, Diego, who brought Planeta and Sicilian wine into the present, by bringing world-famous agronomists, oenologists and scientists to Sicily. The modern story started in 1985 on the western side of the southern coast with the planting of grapes in Ulmo, in the Menfi region, which remains the epicentre of the story. Planeta has now also opened another winery there, called Monte Cirami, dedicated solely to the production of premium reds.
Today, Planeta is owned by 15 cousins. Alessio Planeta was named Winemaker of the Year in Wine Enthusiast’s 2023 Wine Star Awards. He graduated in agricultural sciences and has worked at his family’s winery ever since, as well as holding many important positions in Sicilian wine organisations. In March this year, the Planetas were named ‘Wine Family of the Year’ at this year’s edition of the Meininger Awards Excellence in Wine & Spirits.
Planeta Winery’s sustainable vineyards in Sicily
In all, Planeta has 386 hectares of vineyards (with 250ha in Menfi), comprising both indigenous and international grape varieties, and makes in excess of 2.4 million bottles of wine in a typical year. Not just the vineyards but their entire growing area, which also includes olive groves (of course!), almond groves, and cereal fields, has been certified organic since 2021. The soils are very varied across the island’s regions where Planeta has vineyards: Menfi has clay-calcereous, Vittoria marine-calcareous, Noto limestone, Etna volcanic and Capo Milazzo alluvial.
Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG is in fact the only DOCG in Sicily. “It’s like walking on the beach with one metre of red, sandy soil, and then chalky soils below, with the soils coming from the sea,” says Alessio Planeta, speaking at a Circle of Wine Writers webinar. Here, the local Frappato grape is blended with Nero d’Avola to vibrantly exciting effect, with the Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG, the flagship wine of Planeta’s Dorilli estate comprising 40% of the former and 60% of the latter. Frappato is also made as a single-varietal Vittoria DOC wine (see tasting note later in this article). The beaches here, on the island’s south coast, witnessed the Allied landings of 1943.
Another remarkable vineyard setting is on the Capo di Milazzo peninsula that juts out dramatically on the northeastern coastline of Sicily, where the vines grow right next to sea. It is an amazing feeling to drive out to Planeta’s La Baronia eight-hectare estate, with the sea on all sides. One might think that placing a winery here in such a special spot would be not the right thing to do but the truth is you can’t even see this sustainability-oriented ‘dismountable cellar’, with its small, minimalist and light supporting structure, made of iron and stone, which is designed to be temporary, fully removable and transportable without damage to the territory, unless you’re right outside it. Capo di Milazzo is a flat promontory bordered by steep escarpments that descend for almost 60 meters to the sea. The alluvial soils are loose, dark, deep, rich in silt, with remains of crustaceans.
From Capo di Milazzo, Planeta has revived the ancient tradition of Mamertino DOC (Nero d’Avola 60%, Nocera 40%), once apparently adored by none other than Julius Caesar and Nocera (Sicilia DOC, Nocera 100%) and has also introduced experimental research on three ancient varieties: Vitraruolo, Lucignola and Catanese Nera.
Sustainable winemaking practices at Planeta Winery
Alessio Planeta is a member of the board of directors of the island-wide SOStain programme. Its main goal is to promote the sharing of best practices aimed at respecting the ecosystem, stimulating research and higher education to develop a culture of sustainability at all levels, orienting production and consumption models to increase awareness in Sicily and elsewhere of the importance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs – Sustainable Development Goals).
A concrete example of such a practices is that Planeta and other members are starting to use locally-produced bottles in a bid to reduce their carbon imprint and support Sicily’s sole glassworks. La Bottiglia 100% Sicilia uses a high content of recycled glass (90%), coming only from separate collection in Sicily. The bottles are produced in Sicily at the O-I plant in Marsala, the only glassworks in Sicily.
Top Sicilian wines by Planeta Winery
Starting with the volcanic wines, Etna Bianco Contrada Taccione is 100% Carricante, a quarter of which was vinified in oak, and shows linear acidity and a creamy, peachy, oily nose and palate, with salty, briny minerality, and bracing, lemony acidity. A classic, balanced volcanic wine with 13% alcohol. It is from the Montelaguardia vineyard, which sits at 690-720 metres above sea level. The white version of Eruzione 1614, which is 90% Carricante, with 10% of Riesling to add shape, is full-bodied, oily and flinty, with ripe apricot. It is kept on the fine lees until July with battonage carried out daily, and picks up appealing smokiness as it ages. It is strange that this wine sits outside the Etna DOC due to it coming from over 800 metres, at which height ripening might once have been an issue, but if anything it’s ideally placed given the rising temperatures that Sicily has been experiencing.
The Etna Rosso DOC is made from Nerello Mascalese, fermented in conical fermenters. It has a pale ruby colour, aromas and flavours of sour cherry, strawberry, focussed acidity. restrained tannins, with fine gravelly tannins and a remarkable saline note on the palate. It is no surprise that is often referred to as ‘the Nebbiolo of the south’, though is noticeably less tannic. The Eurozione 1614 red, fermented in concrete tanks, ramps up the concentration and is beautifully round, complex and supple. Again, it seems strange that the Eurozione wines should be excluded from the DOC when they are so good.
From Menfi, the white Terebinto Grillo is named after a local and Mediterranean-wide shrub with shiny leaves, and is from the Monte Cirami and Gurra vineyards, which are 400 metres and 35 metres above sea level, respectively. This is a Grillo that’s very much on the tropical side, with pineapple, mango and melon to complement the tart Granny Smith apple notes that the grape variety, which is a crossing of Catarratto and Zibibbo (Muscat of Alexandria), is often associated with. It has a juicy zestiness about it.
The pale ruby Frapatto from Vittoria DOC is a light, fruity and floral red, with sour cherry and rose hip notes, with restrained tannins. It fits in nicely with the trend of certain discerning consumers seeking red wines that are lighter in tannins and body. For me, it was a little reminiscent of Kadarka from Hungary.
The Nocera from Capo di Milazzo is medium-bodied yet intense and very distinctive red wine indeed, with aromas and flavours of rose hips, garrigue, all spice, juicy black and red fruit, with a touch of dried fruit and soft, mellow tannins. It was vinified solely in the tanks, which brings its fruity and naturally herbal-spicy qualities to the fore.
Selected from the Zuppardo and Agliastro vineyards from the pure white limestone of Noto DOC, in the south-eastern corner of Sicily, Santa Cecilia exudes the elegance enabled by these wonderful soils. It has really supple red and black fruit, dark chocolate and Mediterranean herb notes, plus defined, structured tannins and lively acidity. It is 100% Nero d’Avola, which all too often can taste rustic, but this wine proves that it can also make extremely noble wine, too.
Overall, the combination of soils, the cooling influence provided by the proximity of the sea or the elevation of the vineyards lead to wines that are fresh and airy – all of the Planeta wines I tried had vibrant acidity and were never flabby or jammy.
Olive oil
Like so many other Sicilian and Italian wineries, Planeta also produces its own olive oil. The happens at its Capparrina estate, in Menfi, from 98ha of olives groves descending from the hill as far as the beach of Porto Palo, with a further 50ha added since 2017. Planeta pursues the philosophy of the ‘Capparrina’s Oasis’: “it is not only where we grow olives and produce olive oil, but a protection site for a Mediterranean environment on the sea, where intact and native flora and fauna surround and coexist with the olive trees. Today as for thousands of years.”