Etna, Sicily

Nerello Mascalese with small amounts of Nerello Cappuccio and Alicante

Crimson red in colour, this wine has attractive aromas of red cherries andstrawberries, coupled with blood orange and white flowers. The palate is flavoursomewith red fruit flavours and underlying spice. Tannins are ripe and juicy with mineralundertones. A more fruit-driven vintage than the structured 2022.

Jeudi 15 Rosso 2023 was one of the few wines the estate had grapes to produce in2023. A devasting attack of the fungal disease, downy mildew (peronospera) during theflowering and bunch formation of Nerello Mascalese, late June meant a largepercentage of vines failed to produce fruit for the 2023 harvest. Thankfully, some ofthe older vines, in deep, sandy volcanic soils, proved more resistant, so too NerelloCappuccio and Grenache.

Small quantities of healthy, ripe bunches of grapes were hand harvested fromorganically farmed, 70- 80 year old bush vine vineyards, located in the contrade ofMonteLaguardia, Allegracore and Crasa during the last week of September. Harvestcontinued to be slightly earlier than the norm due to the warm growing season. 80% ofthe grapes were de-stemmed by hand into an open 30hl wooden fermenter. The rest ofthe grapes were added as whole bunches. Several mastellone (10hl food-grade plastictubs) were also filled with grapes, 100% de-stemmed. Fermentation was conducted spontaneously by indigenous yeasts without temperature control. The fermenting musts were plunged down daily, by foot, hand or wooden stick and pressed after 10 -12days. The new wine underwent malolactic fermentation and remained on fine lees, in twolarge, used 20hl oak cask, before blending in February 2024. The wine was bottled atthe end of April 2024, being neither fined nor filtered.

Why is this cuvee called Jeudi 15? - in recognition of the harvest day and date the firstyear this wine was made, Thursday 15th October 2009 - (Jeudi being French for Thursday)