Girolamo Russo Named Top Wine of 2024

This past week, Food & Wine editor Ray Isle named Girolamo Russo’s A’Rina Etna Rosso as his #4 wine of 2024, writing about winemaker Giuseppe: “he’s charming, impressively talented, and definitely one of the new (or new-ish) names to follow if you are intrigued by the elegant transparency and complexity that Nerello Mascalese gets when it’s grown on Etna’s volcanic soils.”

Using estate bottled fruit from a combination of different sites, the A’Rina is a blend of roughly 90% Nerello Mascalese with 10% Nerello Cappuccio, all planted using massal selection. The vines range from 20 to 100 years of age, rooted in weathered volcanic lava flows on the north side of Mount Etna, head-trained or modified head-trained. To Isle’s point, the complexity and draw of this wine is the dynamism of the volcanic-grown fruit. It’s herbaceous and floral with incredibly-concentrated color and flavor.

Giuseppe’s vineyards are planted on ancient lava flows called ‘sciare,’ which vary in age, mineral content and topsoil composition, with underground pockets that allow water retention to keep the vines hydrated during the heat of the summer. The solid rock of these lava flows breaks down over time, eventually becoming loose enough that a plant’s roots can penetrate. We recommend sampling any of the Girolamo Russo wines to see how these soils impact the flavor.

As Isle points out: “His Etna Rosso was a perfect summertime red, fragrant with red berry fruit, light-bodied, and lively. I’ll double-down on that to say that it’s a terrific wintertime red as well.”

We agree!