Monteleone - Etna

Rather than taking over existing vineyards or operations from preceding generations, Giulia Monteleone has built her winery from scratch. Giulia was a wine writer before founding Monteleone, and so came with a specific vision when founding the winery: to make fine wines expressing place, with a relentless pursuit of quality. The consequence we see from this is a level of deliberate precision that extends from the selection of the vineyards she has purchased, starting in 2017, through to the treatment of each wine in the cellar.

Where many Etna wine bottles will feature vivid depictions of the volcano, often in full eruption mode, you will notice the Monteleone labels are more subtle, focusing on the flora and fauna that can be found around their vineyards. 

The wines Giulia is producing are already superb, without exception. But it's only since 2023 that she has been using her own winemaking equipment at the estate, so we are anticipating great things in the years to come as the grapes, techniques and equipment reach full harmony. We have the sense of getting in on the ground level of something very special.

A combination of volcanic soil and cooler microclimates makes Etna wine so dramatically different to other Sicilian styles - and puts them right in the sweet spot for our preference at Vino Cammino. Vibrant acid, bright fruits, ethereal character and age-worthy structure are a hallmark of the native varieties grown around Etna and in the Monteleone vineyards. For reds, it's Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio. For whites, Carricante is the focus.