In the late 1800s, Etna was a tiny wine region producing wines from local grapes for local people. The nearby town of Catania (technically a city, as it had a cathedral, but small even by the standards of the time) had limited port facilities, and the wines had no great reputation beyond the villages of Randazzo and Passopisciaro where the vineyards were concentrated.

Then came phylloxera, a small louse from North America, which arrived in Europe in the 1880s and spread quickly through the establised wine regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy. The scale, and speed, of the disaster defies comprehension. Within a few years, most vineyards in the established appellations of France were dead or dying - wealthy wineries flooded their vineyards to limit the spread of the pest, but even this drastic treatment was of limited effect. Markets, and winemakers, adapted, seeking new regions - South Africa, Australia, Spain (Rioja owes much of its modern status to Bordeaux winemakers fleeing south during this period) - but within a decade phylloxera had followed, and the scope of the disaster spread.

Etna, from around 1900 onwards, became a refuge. The style of the wines was lifted and elegant, 'Burgundian', and so Etna became a Burgundy substitute for a desperate world. Massive investment saw vineyards planted all around the slopes of the volcano, on terraces sculpted from the ashen soils. Catania saw her port facilities expanded massively to meet the requirements of a world desperate for wine from one of the few regions where phylloxera remained absent. And unlike in so many other places, phylloxera remained absent - silicate in the soil made the slopes of the volcano inhospitable to the bugs which had proved so destructive everywhere else.

Then it was discovered that, by planting European vines on American rootstock, it was possible to avoid the effects of phylloxera. Burgundy replanted and recovered, and interest in Etna faded. The vines were left on their terraces, as two wars came and went and the people left the countryside to find work in the cities. Nature reclaimed the vineyards and olive groves and only  few, easily accessed vineyards continued to make wine for local consumption.

This began to change in the 1990s, as a new generation returned to the mountain. They returned to family farms, bringing expertise, funds and a determination to revitalise viticulture on the mountain. Three decades on, Etna is an established DOC with a coterie of quality-focused producers making exceptional wines from ancient, usually own-rooted vineyards. Join us to taste a few of these.