Tenuta di Aglaea, “Aglaea,” Nerello Mascalese, Terre Siciliane IGP

Mount Etna is not only Europe’s largest active volcano, it’s probably the most talked-about wine region on earth right now. Everything about it is so extreme that it’s impossible not to be drawn in: You’re at an extremely southern latitude (which connotes ‘hot’), but an exceptionally high altitude (which in reality means ‘cool’); you’ve got porous, ashy soils formed by volcanic eruptions, with old, gnarled, mostly bush-trained vines that look like they’re growing on the moon.It’s not just an extreme terroir, however, but a genuinely great terroir, blessed not only with well-adapted indigenous grapes but with a tidal wave of new investment and new blood. This wine from Tenuta di Aglaea is emblematic of this Etna renaissance, a pretty and perfumed red from the native Nerello Mascalese grape that drinks like a first-rate Bourgogne Pinot Noir—albeit one with a humble price and a perfumed, Mediterranean twist.Like most Etna properties, Aglaea is a small-scale operation, working with just a