You'll notice that this wine is classified as a Terre Siciliane IGT and not an Etna DOC. That's because the Barbabecchi vineyard is located above the 1,000-meter mark drawn by local authorities as the highest elevation for appellation wine. The Graci 2016 Quota 1000 Barbabecchi is a romantic wine that transports us up into thin air, closer to the fiery crater of Etna, to a wild and unruly place where all viticultural bets are off. At great risk, grapes are harvested the first week of November, later than anywhere else, when weather can be very cold. The Nerello Mascalese is left to ferment on the skins for up to 30 days. The wine is then aged in oak for two long years. All elements are carefully measured in order to make this wine of extremes. This is a beautiful edition, with crisp berry and cherry aromas that cede to earthy mineral and wild flower. The tannins are fine, silky and beautifully managed in this vintage. It is gorgeous, elegant and engineered for the long haul.

From one of the highest growing sites on Etna (at 1,000 meters above sea level), the 2015 Quota 1000 Barbabecchi is an IGT wine because the physical limits of the appellation do not extend this high up the flank of the volcano. This is an elegant and complete expression of Nerello Mascalese that offers dark and compact fruit followed by elegant floral tones of wild rose and dark violets. This sultry expression shows balsam herb, tar, cigar box and salty mineral. The wine ends on a dry note, especially in this warm vintage, but there is enough acidity and firmness of texture to counter those dry or dusty tannins. Give the wine an extra year or two of bottle age to fill out further. I would have scored this wine higher if it were not for the dusty and astringent nature of the tannins, which feel a little unbalanced in my opinion.

Alberto Graci has created a gorgeous wine—the best I have yet tasted from his winery—in the form of the 2014 Quota 1000 Barbabecchi. This wine represents many of the ideals that I would imagine finding if I were in front of the archetypal Etna Rosso. By the way, because these vineyards are about the appellation limit of 1,000 meters above sea level, this wine is technically not in the appellation. Funny how that works out, because this wine is indeed so reflective of that specific Etna identity. I tasted this wine twice: once when I first opened the bottle and once again 12 hours later. I did this with all my top-scoring reds in this report. This vintage is powerful, tonic, dry and tart. It offers a graceful, almost fragile first impression but then delivers a song succession of berry, smoke and ash flavors that drive the very long finish.