Caciorgna Pietro
In 2005, Paolo Caciorgna visited with Marco De Grazia on Etna and fell in love with a half-hectare vineyard planted to ancient pre-phylloxera vines in the Contrada Marchesa near Passopisciaro. After that initial purchase, he acquired more tiny plots of land. He started a tiny production (n’anticchia means “a tiny bit” in Sicilian dialect) of wine, going from 1,800 bottles in 2005 to 5,000 in 2009. N’Anticchia is his cru selection and the brand is dedicated to his father Pietro. MONICA LARNER, The Wine Advocate
Paolo Caciorgna speaks quietly but carries a big resume! The diminutive winemaker - a native of Tuscany - has grown up with alongside the enormous changes in Italian winemaking and far from being an observer he has become one of it's main players. As a winemaker he has worked for some of the greatest names in Tuscan viticulture including Teruzzi e Puthod in the very early days as well as the likes of Montevertine and Soldera. Today he consults to a few different producer including Il Palagio and Paradiso in Brunello but perhaps his most interesting assignment is his own. There are two estates under his label; one in his native Tuscany and a tiny estate on the slopes of Mt Etna in Sicily specialising in the local DOC Etna Rosso made form Nerello Mascalese. In the latter case, the vines are all pre-phyloxera ranging is age from 5 to 100 years old. The project is a special to Caciorgna; it represents a chance to expand his repertoire and refresh him as a winemaker.
In both cases the Caciorgna style of minimal intervention and gentle extraction produce wines of delicacy; of aromatic purity, medium-to-full palate weight and more than anything, a sense of where they were grown.
Caciorgna has his pick of winemaking assignments at some of the best producers in Italy; the fact that he has shunned all of these in favour of growing his own dream from scratch speaks of a man who has seen it all and now wants to return to a simpler more fundamental approach to growing grapes and making wine. PWS
Paolo Caciorgna speaks quietly but carries a big resume! The diminutive winemaker - a native of Tuscany - has grown up with alongside the enormous changes in Italian winemaking and far from being an observer he has become one of it's main players. As a winemaker he has worked for some of the greatest names in Tuscan viticulture including Teruzzi e Puthod in the very early days as well as the likes of Montevertine and Soldera. Today he consults to a few different producer including Il Palagio and Paradiso in Brunello but perhaps his most interesting assignment is his own. There are two estates under his label; one in his native Tuscany and a tiny estate on the slopes of Mt Etna in Sicily specialising in the local DOC Etna Rosso made form Nerello Mascalese. In the latter case, the vines are all pre-phyloxera ranging is age from 5 to 100 years old. The project is a special to Caciorgna; it represents a chance to expand his repertoire and refresh him as a winemaker.
In both cases the Caciorgna style of minimal intervention and gentle extraction produce wines of delicacy; of aromatic purity, medium-to-full palate weight and more than anything, a sense of where they were grown.
Caciorgna has his pick of winemaking assignments at some of the best producers in Italy; the fact that he has shunned all of these in favour of growing his own dream from scratch speaks of a man who has seen it all and now wants to return to a simpler more fundamental approach to growing grapes and making wine. PWS