SRC

On the slopes of Mount Etna, between 600 and 1000 meters above sea level, Rori Parasiliti, together with his wife Cinzia and daughter Sandra, tends to vines that are up to 100 years old, crafting wines that are cool in structure and finely woven in style.

The Gift

SRC – pronounced “ess-ehr-chee” – stands for essere (to be) and is formed from the initials of the three protagonists: Sandra, Rori, and Cinzia. It is a telling example of what can happen when a gift hits just the right note. At the beginning of 2013, Rori Parasiliti had the idea to buy his wife Cinzia half a hectare of land with old vines on the northern slopes of Mount Etna. Cinzia was so overjoyed with her new vineyard, and Rori so pleased with the success of his present, that he decided to purchase the remaining half hectare in the Contrada (vineyard site) Crasà as well.

Later that same year, the couple, supported by their daughter Sandra, got to work. They delved into Etna's winemaking traditions, sought advice from friendly local producers, and vinified their first vintage in a garage near their plot. The result was 3,000 bottles of wine, already infused with a philosophy that remains largely unchanged to this day. It is based on deep respect for their land (after all, one takes care of beautiful gifts), meticulous manual work from pruning to harvest, a complete rejection of herbicides and pesticides, individual care for each vine, extremely low yields rarely exceeding 2,000 kilos per hectare, spontaneous fermentation, natural vinification without any additives, aging in cement tanks and large wooden barrels, and bottling without filtration and with minimal sulfur.

Expansion

After the 2014 and 2015 vintages were also made in the garage, and additional vineyards in Randazzo and Castiglione di Sicilia had been acquired, the family took the next big step and built their own cellar.

Today, around 18,000 bottles are produced there from a total of 12 hectares of vineyards. The low yields are due to several factors: above all, the couple’s unwavering commitment to quality – only perfect grapes are used, from their Etna Rosso to their site-specific cuvées. In addition, many of the vines are truly ancient, often planted over a hundred years ago in the volcanic lava soils. These old vines bear only a few but highly concentrated grapes.

Nerello Mascalese & Carricante

The most important grape variety for the Parasiliti family, as throughout Etna, is Nerello Mascalese, which plays the lead role in all of their red wines. Where it doesn’t stand alone, it is either blended with the also widespread Nerello Cappuccioor, more unusually, with Granacha (Grenache).

While Etna’s white wines are generally less well-known than its reds, they are of similarly high quality – which should come as no surprise: the volcanic geology, cool climate conditions, and dramatic day-night temperature swings provide the ideal setting for the equally old Carricante vines.

What began as a gift from Rori to Cinzia has developed over the years into one of the most exciting wineries on the island. The finely textured, cool-structured, and elegant wines not only reveal the couple’s sensitive engagement with their terroir, but also reflect the dynamism and energy with which they pursue this new life project.