There was a grape producer in Burgundy who said a thing that I think was very wise. He said, “Pinot Noir is not a great grape. Pinot Noir is a great grape in Burgundy.” So Nerello is not a great grape. It’s a great grape on Etna. Outside of Etna, it doesn’t deliver. I’m not saying that Pinot Noir doesn’t deliver outside of Burgundy, but I haven’t ever tasted a Pinot Noir outside of Burgundy that can compare with great Pinot Noirs of Burgundy.

So the great appellation is the best place for its variety. Otherwise, people would be planting Cabernet in Burgundy and Pinot Noir and Bordeaux and so on and so forth. And it wouldn’t work. So I think the best thing about Nerello Mascalese is that it took whatever it took, centuries and centuries or millennia, to find the right grape.

And it’s not the only grape, because there’s also Nerello Cappuccio, there’s Nerello Mantellato, there’s some … They used to mix in some white grapes with the red. And in the old vines, you still find them. There are wines that like solitude, grapes that like solitude. There are wines and grapes that like company and enjoy company. And Nerello Mascalese is just the right grape for Etna, for red wines, just like Carricante is the right grape for white wines here. Then you can add a little bit of this and that that’s been added here for forever and ever.

But comparing it with another grape, that doesn’t really make much sense to me. Yes, I can say that, for me, it is the similarities between Nerello. There’s a kinship between Nerello, Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo. There’s some kind of kinship there. How, I don’t know.

If you taste them separately, one reminds you of the other. If you taste them together, you see how different they are, but that they share something ineffable, but that’s there. It’s like two brothers or two sisters. Sometimes they don’t really look alike, but you can tell they’re brothers or sisters. It’s something like that.