Giusi Murabito on Etna’s Agricultural Diversity

Native Sicilian Giusi Murabito, born at the foot of Mount Etna, spent many years in various fields including translation, government, and molecular biology before realizing her passion and inspiration rest in sharing with others the beauty and splendor of the Aeolian Islands. In 2016 Giusi founded Walking Eolie & Sicily, which enables people from around the world to experience the culture of the region through guided walking tours focusing on food and wine.

Grape Collective talks with Giusi about the diversity of Etna and the experience of living so close to an active volcano.

Giusi, tell us a little bit about your background and your family lemon farm.

Everything started at the lemon farm. When I was a child I used to live here and play here and I also helped the workers harvesting the lemons. Then I went to college, studied and went to Rome to become an interpreter and translator. I became a molecular biologist too, went to work with my family, and then I qualified as a tour guide and tourist consultant. I’m back to the lemon farm now, where I help the soil and the land of Sicily stay alive.

In many wine regions you have monocultures — rows and rows of the same grape. Etna is very different. Talk about this diversity.

The diversity of cultivations is bound to the different composition of the soil, which encloses all the minerals from Mount Etna and the salt from the sea, creating the perfect environment for different kinds of grapes and fruits to grow — the wheat, the ancient Sicilian wheat that can still offer a great diversity of breads and flour. This is also thanks to the temperature here, which respects the seasons — from winter to autumn to spring to summer — never extreme, but a mild process that helps the different grapes and vegetables grow peacefully.

Talk about some of the fruits and vegetables that have this unique personality.

I think the vegetable that represents Sicily is the tomato — it can express the minerality. You water it when it’s very small for a week or ten days at most, and then leave it, because the roots have to struggle and find the water underneath, coming from Mount Etna, from the melted snow.

Etna offers a variety of fruits too. The main fruit is apple — the Etna apples are so tiny, so irregular, that you wouldn’t pay a penny for one, but then you bite into it and it’s so sweet, so good for a cake. Pistachio is very specific to western Etna — Bronte has become a hub for pistachio dealing throughout the world. Lemons recently got the IGP appellation, because it’s a specific Etna lemon embraced by two breezes: one blowing from Etna, bringing the minerals from the volcano, and the breeze from the Ionian Sea, bringing the iodine.

Etna has this wonderful diversity of terroir. How does this impact the wines?

Every wine, every grape, can change every 100 meters of the grown land. This is amazing, especially combined with the personality of the winemaker, the interpreter of the grape variety and the land. I love wines from northern Etna as well as southern and southeastern Etna — the soil gives characteristics, either sweetness or acidity, to the blend the winemaker makes from the grapes available.

It’s come a long way in the last 15 years, hasn’t it?

The quality level has increased because the winemakers have improved their knowledge, thanks to the example of people coming from the north, and the Sicilians have learned and studied and put their own touch into the interpretation of the soil. The quality has also improved because the audience has listened, has appreciated, and has recognized the efforts made in the winemaking process.

What are some of the challenges of living on a volcano?

Besides the performance of the volcano, we have to deal with the constant eruptions of ashes, which have covered us 25 times in the last 15 months. This means cleaning the roof, cleaning the road. For the plants it is not good either, because the ash stays on the leaves and they get too much heat from the sun, which burns the vegetation. Living at the foot of a volcano is always an amazing way of living, because you think you are under protection, but also under a spell — this combination of good and bad puts you always into a search for balance.

How do you see the future for Etna?

I see a great future for Etna, because the world is recognizing the quality of the region, and everything is a combination of efforts made together. People are looking for Sicilian wines first, but now increasingly for Etna wines, recognizing Etna as a region in its own right. If producers and growers keep that in mind, they can go higher.

Originally interviewed by Christopher Barnes for Grape Collective.