With vineyards located at elevations ranging from 600-1,000 meters a.s.l. on the slopes of Mt. Etna’s active volcano, the Alta Mora winery and estate includes some of the highest-lying vines in the world today. It owns parcels in five of the appellation’s “contrade” or sub-zones and as a result, the winemaker is able to achieve the desire cuvées by blending grapes sourced from a wide range of different microclimates. The volcanic subsoils in the estate’s growing sites are idea for creating wines with elegance, balance, and minerality. Land there is still largely undeveloped and pristine, an element that makes it easy to farm there without the use of synthetic pesticides or herbicides. Since its founding, Alta Mora has embraced what is known as a “minimal intervention” winemaking style, thus allowing the terroir of the sites to shine through. And its “bio-architecture” cellar, sculpted out of ancient volcanic rock, keeps the wine cool naturally, thus reducing the winery’s carbon footprint. Alta Mora’s wines have recently been named some of Italy’s best by Monica Larner (Robert Parker) and Eric Asimov (New York Times) has called the white wines to be among the best available from Sicily today.
Did you know?
The slopes of Mt. Etna, an active volcano, have some of the most fertile soils in the world. Because there has never been major development there, the soils are pristine and still untouched by chemical farming. This combination of factors makes organic farming easy there.
