The winery of Cavanera Etnea is immersed in the heart of the “Riserva Naturale dell’Etna”, along the north side of the most active and fascinating volcano in Europe. The birth of a cellar within a unique landscape like the one that characterizes the slopes of the volcano, presupposes a design idea that provides for total integration with the surrounding environmental context and in perfect harmony with the Etna landscape.
Around the winery the natural setting is of enchanting beauty: lands born from ancient lava flows, dry black walls, the intense yellow of the gorse that arise spontaneously from volcanic soils and the dark green of the hazel groves that rise towards the top. The vineyards of the estate are exposed to sunlight on large terraces located on the banks of ancient skiing. They manifest themselves in all their magnificence and the contrast of colors that harmonize on bright spring days is surprising, when the sky is clear and the clouds dance on the smoking summit of Etna. During the first autumn days, Cavanera Etnea shows all its natural splendor offering, to beauty lovers, a surprising vision of the generating force of a singular and fascinating wine-growing territory.

From the harvest to the manual selection of the grapes up to the vinification, the Cavanera Etnea cellar with its eco-sustainable technologies allows you to fully exploit the characteristics of the volcano’s terroir, in full respect of the surrounding natural habitat. The eco-compatible structure of the Cavanera Etnea winery has been set inside a lava flow which has grafted into the volcanic soil for tens of meters of depth. The particular position inside the “Sciara” allows you to naturally take advantage of the energy benefits offered by the environmental context. An example is its natural thermal insulation which allows a constant temperature and ideal humidity without the use of machines that consume energy.
From the winemaking area to the aging area up to the deep and silent barrel cellar, you benefit, in addition to a considerable energy saving with a relative reduction of CO2 emissions, of a thermal insulation which guarantees the optimal conditions for the aging of the wines.
The hypogeous part is able to naturally ensure constant levels of darkness, humidity and temperature, generating the ideal conditions for the fermentation in the bottle of the classic method sparkling wine, and for the aging in wood of red wines.

Developing in height, on three distinct planes, this engineering approach allows to exploit the force of gravity, acting by fall. It follows that the reception and selection of the bunches takes place on the second level, while the processing phases such as winemaking and aging are carried out on the first level, where the barrel cellar is also located. The permanence in the French oak barrels of wines produced from Nerello Mascalese grapes is on average two years. Firriato pays the utmost attention and care in the selection of the finest French woods, coming from the forests of Allier, Tronçais and Jupilles, to ensure the perfect refinement of the wines that are born on the volcano. The bottling area is on the second floor, and from here you can have access to the most precious and exclusive place in the cellar: the refinement room of the classic method of sparkling wines, called “Sala Gaudensius”. Among the resting bottles he feels enveloped by the charm and magic of the volcano. In the rarefied atmosphere of the aging room, it is possible, only for a few, to taste and get to know the qualities of Etna wines. A more spacious area dedicated to wine tasting is located at the top of the cellar, the Riserva Bistrot. The atmosphere is decidedly different from that of the barrel cellar but no less fascinated because the view is breathtaking, on one side the top of the volcano and on the other the pre-phylloxera vineyard which, with its 150 years of life, tells an oenological story extraordinary.