Making Wine Under A Volcano's Shadow

ETNA, SICILY, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 22: Nerello Mascalese grapes are hand-harvested for the Tenuta delle Terre Nere winery in the Alcantara valley on the northern side of the Mt. Etna volcano, Europe's largest and most active, on September 22, 2017 in Sicily, Italy. Wine has been made in Sicily for thousands of years and the island had a reputation for its bulk production and cheap wines but in the late 1980's a small group of local winemakers launched a revolution to make quality wines from indigenous grapes. On the volcano's eastern slopes, amidst recent and ancient lava flows, lies the Etna DOC (Denominazione di origine controllata) where three decades later some 300 wineries produce close to 1 million bottles of highly regarded and tightly regulated wine from 1620 acres of volcanic and mineral-rich soil, mainly from the Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio red grapes and Carricante and Catarratto white varietals. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images)