2022 Salvo Foti 'Vinupetra Viti Centenarie'

Vinupetra Viti Centenarie is the rarest and most concentrated expression of Salvo Foti’s work on the northern slopes of Mount Etna. It is not simply an older-vine version of Vinupetra, but a minute selection from the ancient heart of Vigna Calderara in Contrada Porcaria, where the vineyard itself becomes a living archive of Etna viticulture.

The parcel covers only 0.15 hectares and contains roughly 1,300 vines, planted at a density of 10,000 vines per hectare. They are more than one hundred years old, many remain ungrafted, and each is trained in the traditional alberello etneo system with an individual chestnut post. Farming and harvest are entirely manual, not as a stylistic gesture, but because no other form of viticulture is possible or appropriate here.

At 580 metres on northern Etna, the soils are volcanic, deep and filled with small and medium-sized lava stones. The name Vinupetra means wine from a land full of stones, and in this bottling the idea becomes literal: fruit, tannin and acidity are held together by a dark, stony mineral core.

The old field blend is led by Nerello Mascalese, with Nerello Cappuccio and Alicante, also known as Grenache. The yields are exceptionally low, producing on average only around 800 litres of wine per hectare and approximately 1,000 individually numbered bottles in total.

Thirty percent of the grapes are crushed with their stems, followed by at least 15 days of skin contact in wooden casks. Fermentation is spontaneous, using native yeasts maintained through the historic Etna palmento tradition. The wine matures for 18 months in 225 and 500 litre casks, followed by one more year in bottle. Racking and bottling follow the phases of the moon, with only minimal sulphur used.

In the glass it's deep and composed, opening with black cherry, sour cherry, blackberry and blood orange before moving into violet, rosemary, liquorice, smoke and crushed volcanic stone. The palate is structured but not heavy, with dense fruit, vivid acidity, fine-grained tannins and a long finish of herbs, ash and dark mineral spice. The tannin is austere and carries an unmistakable italian signature.

This is a wine of ancient vines, lava, manual work and cultural continuity. Vinupetra Viti Centenarie stands as one of the clearest statements of Salvo Foti’s life’s work: preserving the vineyard intelligence of Etna by allowing its oldest vines to speak with uncompromising authority.

Slow-cooked beef preparations, roast lamb or smoked duck breast. Great with any cheese platter; evocative as a meditation wine by itself.

Serve: 16–18 °C
Drink: 2026–2050