Passopisciaro

The volcano before Passopisciaro

The property occupies steep terraces high on Mount Etna’s northern slope. A major eruption in 1947 sent lava toward the farm; the flow stopped at the top of the property, immediately before it could cover terraces, vines, walls and buildings. By the winter of 2000, many vineyards and wineries across the mountain had been abandoned, terraces had disappeared beneath vegetation and buildings had collapsed.

2000: Andrea Franchetti arrives on Etna

Andrea Franchetti came to Mount Etna in 2000 and acquired an old farm in Contrada Guardiola, above the village of Passopisciaro. He undertook the restoration of the farm and its cellars, cleared long-abandoned terraces and recovered ancient bush-trained Nerello Mascalese vines on the volcano’s northern face. New vineyards were established on thin volcanic ground at densities of approximately 12,000–12,300 vines per hectare.

The first wine initially appeared pale and slight, prompting Franchetti to experiment with other varieties. Petit Verdot, brought through cuttings from Saint-Julien, was planted beside Cesanese d’Affile, a Lazio variety he had helped preserve. Chardonnay was also planted at high density on the steep Guardiola terraces. These early plantings established the estate’s continuing dual approach: interpreting individual volcanic sites through Nerello Mascalese while also exploring Etna through non-native varieties.

2001–2007: first wines and new plantings

The first vintage, in 2001, was Nerello Mascalese from rented vineyards. Released under the name Passopisciaro, the wine later became Passorosso. As the project developed, the estate assembled and restored its own holdings across the northern slope.

Franchetti introduced the eponymous Franchetti wine in the 2005 vintage, combining Petit Verdot and Cesanese d’Affile from densely planted vineyards near the winery. In 2007 he also founded Le Contrade dell’Etna, an annual event intended to promote Nerello Mascalese and the territorial distinctions among Etna’s contrade.

The estate’s first white wine followed in the 2007 vintage. Originally called Guardiola Bianco and subsequently Passobianco, it was conceived as a pure Chardonnay expression of the high Guardiola terraces.

2008–2011: separating the contrade

After observing that Nerello Mascalese produced markedly different wines according to its district of origin, Franchetti began bottling the strongest sites separately in 2008. The first releases represented Rampante, Sciaranuova, Porcaria and Chiappemacine. This decision helped establish a cru-based reading of Mount Etna through its historically mapped contrade. The labels changed in 2009, adopting abbreviated contrada names.

Contrada Guardiola joined the single-site series in 2011. Its wine was selected from older Nerello Mascalese vines within the extensive Guardiola holdings around the winery.

2014–2018: revised releases and a Chardonnay cru

Beginning with the 2014 vintage, Passorosso carried the Etna Rosso DOC designation. The estate also began retaining Passobianco for two years of bottle maturation before release.

Growing familiarity with the Chardonnay vineyards revealed significant differences in ripening even within individual parcels. Through separate monitoring, harvesting and micro-vinification, the minute Passochianche parcel emerged as an independent site. Its first separate vintage, Contrada PC, was produced in 2018.

2019–2020: twenty years and Montedolce

The 2019 vintage supplied a one-time commemorative wine, 20 Anni, released to mark two decades since the first Etna harvest. It combined Nerello Mascalese from Chiappemacine, Porcaria, Guardiola, Sciaranuova, Rampante, Malpasso, Favazza, Santo Spirito and Arcuria. Production was limited to 1,550 magnums.

A new vineyard was planted in Contrada Montedolce in spring 2020. Montedolce subsequently became one of the sources of Chardonnay for Passobianco alongside Guardiola.

2021 onward: succession and continuity

Andrea Franchetti died in December 2021 at the age of 72. Ownership and leadership passed to his son, Mario Alberto Benjamin Franchetti. Benjamin continued the estate with its established technical team, while Vincenzo Lo Mauro—who had assisted Andrea from the project’s early years—continued as estate director and winemaker. The continuing objective is to preserve the distinct identities developed for the contrade while allowing the vineyards and vintages to determine each wine’s expression.

Passopisciaro lies on the northern slope of Mount Etna in northeastern Sicily, above the village of Passopisciaro in the municipality of Castiglione di Sicilia. The winery stands in Contrada Guardiola at approximately 1,000 metres above sea level, while the vineyards extend across elevations of roughly 550–1,000 metres.

Etna’s repeated eruptions have deposited lava flows of different ages, mineral compositions and grain sizes. These geological variations form discrete and historically mapped districts known as contrade. Their boundaries descend from old feudal property lines and remain recorded in the land registry. Higher vineyards generally contain coarser, gravelly material; lower sites tend toward deeper, finer soils formed from older, oxidized lava reduced to powder. Certain places depart from this pattern: Chiappemacine includes limestone beneath a thin volcanic layer, while Guardiola and Passochianche occupy ancient pyroclastic deposits rich in lava dust and rock.

The vineyards receive abundant light at high altitude. Nights remain cold even in August, producing marked diurnal temperature changes and extending the growing season. Andrea Franchetti described cold air descending the volcano nightly over the black volcanic powder, interrupting the normal metabolism expected of a Sicilian vine and reshaping the accumulation of sugar and aroma. The exposed mountain environment can also bring snow, frost, violent rain, hail, drought and volcanic ash.

The active volcano is a constant physical presence. Lava spills can destroy the landscape but create a new mineral profile with every flow. The 1947 flow reached the upper edge of the property before stopping. Its margin remains central to the terroir of Contrada Guardiola.

The estate recovered long-abandoned stone-walled terraces and ancient, bush-trained Nerello Mascalese vines. These old vineyards generally carry approximately 8,000 vines per hectare, while the newer Chardonnay, Petit Verdot and Cesanese d’Affile plantings reach approximately 12,000–12,300 vines per hectare. Nerello Mascalese vines commonly range from 70 to 120 years old, with a Guardiola parcel described at approximately 140 years.

Harvesting is manual and frequently divided into multiple passes. Ripeness is followed parcel by parcel and, for Chardonnay, terrace by terrace and sometimes cluster by cluster. Mature sections are marked and picked while neighboring sections remain on the vine. This approach is particularly important where altitude and exposure create uneven maturation. Nerello Mascalese has traditionally ripened from late October into early November, although recent hot years have brought earlier harvests. The Petit Verdot and Cesanese d’Affile are likewise collected in several passes. Old Nerello Mascalese vines can draw water through deep, complex root systems and normally require less irrigation.

Treatments documented across the vineyards include clay, propolis, sulphur, copper and grapefruit-seed extract; lime and vitamin C appear in individual historical protocols. Fertilization was often omitted in the older Nerello Mascalese parcels, while manure has been used in certain Chardonnay vineyards. The estate characterizes its disease-control program as organic treatments. During the severe 2023 downy-mildew season, repeated treatments could not prevent losses, especially among earlier-ripening varieties.

Canopy work responds to the vintage. In the wet and humid 2018 season, crews made additional passes to remove leaves carefully, maintaining shade against sunburn while opening the canopy to airflow. Diseased berries have been removed individually from bunches when necessary. Berry or bunch thinning is adjusted after vineyard monitoring rather than applied uniformly.

Water management is similarly reactive. Irrigation was used during the highly stressed 2012 season while the team waited for physiological balance, during the 2017 heatwave, and where possible during the prolonged heat and drought of 2024. In 2024, August rain relieved drought but hail damaged lower vineyards, and some vines died under continued water stress.

Harvest selection has repeatedly protected quality in difficult years. The unevenly ripened 2023 crop was picked entirely by hand, with careful bunch selection after downy mildew contributed to losses of approximately 60%. In hail-affected Porcaria in 2022, sorting was carried out berry by berry and maceration was shortened.

Nerello Mascalese from the contrade

The single-contrada Nerello Mascalese wines are fermented in stainless-steel vats, complete malolactic fermentation and generally mature for 18 months in large neutral oak. Recent technical specifications identify large Slavonian oak barrels; Sciaranuova 2023 remained in them for 19 months. Using substantially the same cellar approach across the sites is intended to retain the distinctions created by lava flow, altitude and exposure. Bottling commonly takes place during the waning moon.

Passorosso blends old-vine Nerello Mascalese from several contrade. For the 2024 vintage, extraction from skins and seeds was deliberately limited to 8–9 days, with fermentation held below 26–28°C. Most of the wine matured in large oak barrels to support tannin development, while a smaller portion aged in concrete. Passorosso is bottled without filtration; the 2024 was bottled during the waning moon in September 2025.

Passobianco

Passobianco is assembled from selectively harvested Chardonnay parcels in Guardiola and Montedolce. In 2024, 10% of the grapes received cold maceration and the balance was pressed as whole clusters. Alcoholic fermentation took place in stainless steel at 22–24°C, followed by malolactic fermentation in concrete. The wine matured on its lees without bâtonnage, 90% in concrete and 10% in large oak. Beginning with the 2014 vintage, Passobianco was retained at the estate for two years of bottle maturation before release.

Contrada PC

Contrada PC is handled through parcel-level selection and micro-vinification. The initial protocol involved destemming, a 12-hour cold soak, pressing and fermentation in neutral oak vessels no larger than 20 hl, followed by spontaneous malolactic fermentation in barrel. The wine was racked off the gross lees, returned to oak and kept on fine lees for at least six months; fining and bottling followed the waning moon, the wine was unfiltered and it received another year in bottle.

The 2023 vinification reflected an evolved protocol: 30% of the Chardonnay underwent approximately 24 hours of pre-fermentation maceration in stainless steel at 10°C, while the rest was gently whole-cluster pressed. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation occurred in large Slavonian oak casks, followed by a short passage in concrete and ten months on fine lees.

Franchetti

The Petit Verdot and Cesanese d’Affile are hand-picked in repeated passes and their proportions vary by vintage. For the 2023 wine, traditional alcoholic fermentation took place in stainless steel, followed by six months in French barriques and another 12 months in large Slavonian oak barrels. Earlier vintages combined six months in new French oak barriques with extended maturation in large concrete vessels. Bottling takes place during the waning moon.

Andrea Franchetti treated wine as an annually changing work shaped by both landscape and the person making it. In his view, the winemaker absorbs the changing scenery and seasons, then transfers those impressions through a long sequence of decisions—from vineyard work and harvest timing to fermentation, maturation and bottling. A single day’s difference in picking could change a wine completely.

At Passopisciaro, that philosophy developed into two complementary paths. Nerello Mascalese serves as a vehicle for place: separate contrade are cultivated and vinified to reveal differences in lava flow, altitude, aspect and vine age, while Passorosso brings several sites together into a broader interpretation of the northern slope. Franchetti, by contrast, was conceived as a maker’s wine: a personal interpretation of Etna through Petit Verdot and Cesanese d’Affile.

Intervention in the contrada wines is deliberately restrained in the cellar so that geological and microclimatic differences remain perceptible. Precision in the vineyard is equally important. Harvest decisions are made through repeated tasting and selection rather than by a single date for an entire holding, and vintage differences are accepted rather than standardized away.

Benjamin Franchetti’s succession emphasizes continuity without treating the wines as static replicas of their founder. The objective is to preserve the distinct identities that developed under Andrea while continuing to translate each vineyard and growing season through the estate team’s accumulated knowledge.