FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

Yes, after your visit to the winery and vineyards you can taste our selection of wines. Choose the package you prefer – we’re expecting you!

If you are energetic, love nature and want to know more about the work that goes into a glass of Etna wine to make it unique, we suggest you try the Etna Experience Full. (link to the page)

Yes, if you’re going to keep them a long time in your cellar. That way the wine stays in contact with the cork, keeping it damp and elastic, and forming a perfect seal that stops oxygen getting into the bottle.

No, if you’re going to drink the wine within a few months of purchase. In that case you can store it upright.

An Etna red can happily lie forgotten in the cellar! It’s one of the longest-ageing wines in the world, although that can depend on the year. The general rule is that the longer the wine has aged in barrel, the longer it can age in bottle.

Our Etna reserve red spends 24-36 months in large (over 3,000 litre) oak and chestnut barrels. All our reds are aged in large barrels, though, so they have great ageing potential, around 10-15 years.

Things are slightly different for wines aged in small barrels (barriques and tonneaux), where micro-oxygenation, the basis of ageing, is faster and can reduce the time a wine will age in bottle.

A bottle of our Etna red wine is normally ready to drink when it is sold. After bottling, we leave the wine to rest in the bottle for at least 12 months, in some cases more than two years. The Koiné reserve, for example, gets more than 24 months, while for Petralava we wait over 12 months.

The longer the wine ages in our cellars, the softer it becomes, acquiring tertiary aromas, the most complex and evolved aromas and flavours.

If you want to find out more about the development of a wine from year to year and increase its value, leave it to age in your cellar. We advise buying 3 or 6 bottles of the same vintage to experience its improvement.

To taste Etna red wine at its best, even the oldest vintages, 1-2 hours is usually more than enough.
The pleasure of tasting a wine comes in part from taking it slowly, allowing time to appreciate all the nuances of its gradual development, from the initial “closed” phase through to the explosion of aromas and flavours when it “opens up”. Each sip becomes a new discovery. The trick is to pour a little of the wine at a time into an appropriate glass, wide but tall, and then swirl it gently to let it breathe.

Etna red wine is very stable and clear. After ageing in large barrels it is racked into large stainless steel containers to settle for 3-4 months before bottling. This gives time for the sediment to clear. When it is bottled, it is also filtered so it is unlikely to produce any sediment in the bottle, even after many years in a cellar. A decanter can certainly help to reduce the breathing time for older vintages, but for our Etna wines it is not strictly necessary.

The recommended temperature for each Antichi Vinai wine is printed on the back label and you will also find it on the product fact sheet.

The accepted wisdom is that whites should be chilled, while reds never should be. In fact, the choice depends on several factors.
A young red wine made in a particular way, like our Asanguefreddo for example, lends itself to being chilled. We recommend putting it in the fridge for about 1 hour before tasting it.
With the Etna red, on the other hand, you should follow the rules for serving big, age-worthy wines: 16-18° C is ideal. If your surroundings are very warm, reduce the serving temperature a couple of degrees, because if you pour a wine at 18° C into warm glasses when the ambient temperature is 30° C or more, it will soon warm up.
Etna red, especially the reserve, is a high-alcohol wine so a high temperature, which increases the alcohol warmth, may make it feel heavy, unbalanced and not very pleasant to drink.

Yes. Even though we use some additives of animal origin, such as egg-white, casein and caseinates, isinglass and gelatine, during some phases of vinification (for example, clarification), it has been scientifically proven that no residues of these products remain in the wine, as they precipitate out completely during clarification.

Thanks to the low levels of sulphites, we can guarantee that our wines won’t give you this problem. Doubtful? Try it and see!

This flavour comes from corks that have been attacked by a mould of the cork-oak tree. It can sometimes affect the organoleptic properties of the wine and is often confused with pronounced woody or toasty flavours in wine.

Should you find one or more wines are corked, contact us and send us the affected bottle(s). The bottle(s) must be at least 2/3 full and have the original cork(s). The bottle(s) should be sent in appropriate/original packaging to protect it/them from damage.
Once we receive the bottle(s) in line with these instructions, our technician will verify the defect and, if/when it is confirmed, we will replace the relevant bottle(s).