Questo vino
Vineyard and terroir
The young vines grow in terraced vineyards on the southwestern slope of Mount Etna, at 800 metres above sea level. The volcanic soils were formed from solidified lava flows.
Vinification
The grapes are harvested by hand and vinified in truncated-cone-shaped oak vats.
Ageing
The wine matures for two years in French oak barriques from Allier and Tronçais, followed by three years in bottle.
Tasting profile
Broad and rounded, with distinctive complexity and a bold character. The aroma evokes the forest floor, with fleeting, gentle hints of fire.
Label / history
Solicchiata forms part of Ab Insula, whose name means “from the island” and refers to Sicily, where the Planeta family has lived and worked for three centuries. The collection also encompasses the Serra Ferdinandea and Castello Solicchiata projects.
Castello Solicchiata was founded in the mid-19th century by the Spitaleri di Muglia family, whose name derives from the Hospitallers, or Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem. Their ancestors settled on Mount Etna after returning from Jerusalem at the end of the 13th century and sold wine there.
In 1855, Baron Felice Spitaleri commissioned a French-style castle on Mount Etna and hundreds of vineyard terraces carved into the lava rock. Father Francesco Tornabene, a geobotanist and ampelographer associated with the Scuola Catanese and founder of the Catania Botanical Garden, oversaw experiments with non-native French varieties. Andrea Scala, architect of the Bellini Theatre in Catania, designed the estate; the boxes of Italian theatres inspired the layout of more than 300 hectares of terraces.
The estate received First Prize at the London Exhibition in 1888, followed by a Grand Diploma of Honour and Gold Medal in Palermo in 1889, Vienna in 1890, Berlin in 1892, Brussels in 1893 and Milan in 1894. It later became an official wine supplier to the Italian royal court.
Today, 60 hectares of the property’s more than 300 hectares are under vine. In accordance with Felice Spitaleri’s intentions, only French varieties are planted, and some vines survive from the original 19th-century plantings. The Castello Solicchiata range comprises six wines. Since 2022, Planeta has distributed the wines and assisted with production and vineyard management.
