Etna wine, Etna golf: on the mountain's black soil

Wine grown on a working volcano

Etna DOC wine is grown on black volcanic soil on the slopes of an active mountain, a growing condition that sets it apart from anywhere else on the golf-and-wine map of Italy. Benanti, one of the denomination’s producers, bottles Pietra Marina, a Carricante released under the Etna DOC Bianco Superiore designation. Further round the mountain, Passopisciaro works the north slope and Pietradolce is based in Solicchiata, both established names on the volcano’s wine map.

Etna’s producers do not sit in a single village the way Barolo or Bolgheri do. The mountain is large enough that its wine zone wraps around several distinct slopes, north, east and south, each one treated by the growers themselves as its own microclimate, which is part of why the same denomination can carry so many producers without any two tasting rooms sitting close together. Benanti’s Etna DOC Bianco Superiore designation, specifically, marks Pietra Marina out from the reds that most visitors associate with Sicily, a white grown on the same volcanic soil as its red neighbours rather than the warmer coastal vineyards most of the island is known for.

Where to taste it

The closest distance on record between the mountain’s golf course and any of its wine producers belongs to Gambino Vini, a visitable cellar just 4.6 km from the course. Benanti, Passopisciaro and Pietradolce each sit in their own zone around the mountain, Etna DOC, the north slope and Solicchiata respectively, without a distance on record for any of the three individually, but all three are inside the same volcano-wide itinerary as the golf.

That gap between one well-documented, easy stop and three well-known names without a fixed distance is worth planning around rather than ignoring: Gambino Vini works for a short visit that fits either side of a round, while Benanti, Passopisciaro and Pietradolce are better treated as a separate leg of the trip, since the mountain’s slopes are wide enough that “on Etna” can mean a considerably longer drive than the golf course itself suggests. A visitor with a single free afternoon is better served starting at Gambino Vini and deciding from there whether the drive further round the mountain is worth the extra time.

The course on the mountain

Il Picciolo Etna Golf Resort is the anchor, and the only golf course inside the Etna itinerary, which makes it the single fixed point every distance on this page is calculated from. A single-course itinerary is unusual on this site, where most corridors carry two or three options, but it also means there is no decision to make about which round to book: everyone playing golf inside the Etna itinerary is playing the same course.

Golf is not the only way to unwind on the mountain either. Torre del Grifo offers wellness on the Catania side of Etna, inside the same itinerary as the course and the wineries above, a reasonable way to close out a day that already covered both.

When to go

May is Etna’s best-scoring month in our climate data: 20.5 degrees average high, 9.0 rain days and 5.8 washout days. July turns driest of all, just 2.6 rain days and 1.4 washout days across the whole month, but the average high climbs to 29.7 degrees, hot going up a mountain with no shade on the fairways. May trades a little of that dryness for a considerably more comfortable round. April actually posts fewer washout days than May, 4.7 against 5.8, at a slightly cooler 16.4 degrees, which makes it a reasonable alternative for anyone who would rather trade a few degrees of warmth for slightly drier fairways. Either month beats the winter readings by a wide margin: December still sits at 12.2 degrees with 5.7 washout days, playable but a different trip entirely from a spring round.

Planning the trip

Etna is one of two Sicilian wine itineraries on this site. Further west, West Sicily: Verdura & Marsala pairs golf with an entirely different set of producers, on a coastline rather than a volcano. To the south, Val di Noto sits 89 km from Etna’s own anchor course, close enough to combine into a longer Sicilian trip that covers both the mountain and the south-east of the island. For the complete picture of the mountain itself, see the Etna itinerary.