Graci

Alberto Aiello Graci founded the estate in 2004 after returning from a Milan finance and banking career to take over his family's long-held land on Etna's north slope at Passopisciaro, a frazione of Castiglione di Sicilia in the historic centre of north-slope Etna viticulture. The Graci family had been present on this land for generations before Alberto's commercial revival, and the choice to return and refound the property as a serious wine estate was part of the broader early-2000s wave that brought Andrea Franchetti at Passopisciaro (2000), Marc de Grazia at Tenuta delle Terre Nere (2002), Frank Cornelissen (2001), and the Faro family at Pietradolce (2005) onto the international wine map. Graci's house position in that wave was the high-quality, organically-farmed, large-Slavonian-botti-aging Passopisciaro producer, neither the natural-wine pioneer (Cornelissen) nor the contrada cataloguer (Terre Nere) nor the single-letter Contrada commercial pioneer (Passopisciaro), but the disciplined family-land operator working the same north-slope substrate.

• Founded 2004 by Alberto Aiello Graci after a Milan finance and banking career
• Family land at Passopisciaro (frazione of Castiglione di Sicilia), historic centre of north-slope Etna viticulture
• Part of the early-2000s wave: Franchetti (2000), Cornelissen (2001), de Grazia / Terre Nere (2002), Pietradolce (2005), Graci (2004)
• House position: organic, large Slavonian botti aging, family-land operator distinct from natural-wine, cataloguer, or commercial-pioneer models

Contrada Arcurìa is Graci's headquarters site, with roughly 21 hectares of vineyards in the contrada at 600 to 700 metres of elevation in the Passopisciaro frazione. The flagship Sopra Il Pozzo is a 1.5-hectare single-vineyard parcel within Arcurìa, named for a soil-survey discovery that gives the wine its identity: the parcel sits on a substrate the estate calls rifusa, a continuous alternation of layers of stone and coarse volcanic sand that differs from the surrounding Arcurìa profile and provides the wine with the structural depth and aromatic precision that distinguish it from the neighbouring parcels. Sopra Il Pozzo is sited within the natural amphitheatre that defines Arcurìa's geography, formed by surrounding lava flows that channel cold dry winds from the upper volcano through the parcel. The wine has anchored Arcurìa's international reputation since the late 2000s and is the international reference point for the contrada name.

• Roughly 21 hectares in Contrada Arcurìa at 600 to 700 metres, the estate headquarters
• Sopra Il Pozzo is a 1.5-hectare single-vineyard parcel within Arcurìa, the international reference for the contrada name
• Named for the rifusa substrate: alternating layers of stone and coarse volcanic sand that distinguishes it from surrounding Arcurìa parcels
• Sited within the natural amphitheatre of Arcurìa, with cold dry north winds channelled through the parcel

Beyond the Arcurìa headquarters, Graci works two additional north-slope contrade. Holdings in Contrada Barbabecchi at 1,000 metres of elevation include parcels with vines up to 100 years old; Alberto Graci has publicly described Barbabecchi as the estate's best vineyard, and the contrada's high-altitude character produces wines with notable lift and structural tension. A smaller 3-acre parcel in Contrada Feudo di Mezzo was planted in 2008 to all four Etna native varieties (Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, Carricante, and Catarratto), providing the estate with a complete native-grape sourcing footprint. The estate range starts with the Quota 600 cuvée, named for the 600-metre elevation of its source parcels in the lower Arcurìa sector and roughly 500 cases of a Nerello Mascalese with Nerello Cappuccio blend that serves as the most widely distributed wine. The estate Etna Rosso DOC and Etna Bianco DOC (70% Carricante and 30% Catarratto) provide the broader north-slope sourcing, with the Sopra Il Pozzo Arcurìa Etna Rosso DOC at the commercial top of the range alongside an Arcurìa Carricante Etna Bianco for the white side.

• Contrada Barbabecchi at 1,000 metres: parcels with vines up to 100 years old, described by Alberto Graci as the estate's best vineyard
• 3-acre Feudo di Mezzo parcel planted 2008 to all four Etna native varieties (Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, Carricante, Catarratto)
• Quota 600 cuvée named for 600-metre source vines in the lower Arcurìa parcels; roughly 500 cases, Nerello Mascalese with Cappuccio
• Etna Bianco DOC (70% Carricante, 30% Catarratto) and Arcurìa Carricante Etna Bianco for the white side; Sopra Il Pozzo Arcurìa Etna Rosso at the commercial top

In 2016 Graci entered a joint venture with Angelo Gaja, the Piedmontese producer who had already extended the Gaja family operations into Tuscany at Pieve Santa Restituta and Ca' Marcanda. The IDDA project (Sicilian for she, a nickname for Mount Etna) is sited on Etna's southwest slope at Belpasso and Biancavilla, a face of the volcano commercially less developed than the north slope. The IDDA holding is roughly 20 hectares at 600 to 800 metres, mostly Carricante for white-wine production with a smaller plot of Nerello Mascalese for reds. The IDDA winery was constructed in Belpasso and welcomed its first commercial harvest in 2023; the project produces an Etna Rosso DOC and a Sicilia Bianco. IDDA is a separate commercial brand from Graci, with Alberto Graci as the local technical lead and Gaja as the marketing-distribution and capital partner. The collaboration extended the Etna international wine map to a slope that had not previously been on the modern producer-led map at the level the Sicilian and Piedmontese names brought.

• 2016 joint venture with Piedmontese producer Angelo Gaja; Alberto Graci as technical lead, Gaja as capital and distribution partner
• Sited on Etna's southwest slope at Belpasso and Biancavilla, a previously commercially-undeveloped face of the volcano
• 20-hectare holding at 600 to 800 metres, mostly Carricante with a smaller Nerello Mascalese plot
• Winery built in Belpasso; first commercial harvest 2023; produces Etna Rosso DOC and Sicilia Bianco; separate brand from Graci

Graci's house identity in the modern Etna scene is the disciplined, family-land, organic, large-Slavonian-botti producer with the Sopra Il Pozzo Arcurìa flagship as the single international reference for the Arcurìa name. The 2016 IDDA partnership with Gaja added a second dimension by extending the producer-led Etna map to the southwest slope and bringing the Gaja-network international distribution to a project that would have struggled to reach that scale on its own. Together the two ventures position Alberto Graci as one of the small group of Etna producers (alongside Salvo Foti, Andrea Franchetti, Marc de Grazia, Frank Cornelissen, and Michele Faro at Pietradolce) whose work has shaped the appellation's modern commercial identity. The Sopra Il Pozzo is the wine the international reader will reach for first; Quota 600 is the entry-point Nerello Mascalese reference; the Barbabecchi parcels carry the high-elevation old-vine identity; and IDDA is the commercial extension that will likely define Graci's next decade of expansion alongside the established north-slope core.

• House identity: disciplined family-land producer, organic farming, large-format Slavonian botti aging
• Sopra Il Pozzo Arcurìa Etna Rosso is the international reference for the Arcurìa contrada name
• IDDA partnership with Gaja (2016) extended the producer-led Etna map to the southwest slope and brought Gaja-network distribution
• Together with Foti, Franchetti, de Grazia, Cornelissen, and Faro, Alberto Graci is among the small group whose work has shaped Etna's modern commercial identity