Signora Etna Called My Name: A Soul-Shaking Day at Terra Costantino

By Mauricio De Chiaro IWA

Some places don’t just greet you — they crack your heart wide open and refuse to let it close again. Mount Etna did that to me the moment I stepped onto her slopes. The air was thick with volcanic dust, wild fennel, and the faint salt of the sea. The mountain loomed, breathing, smoking, alive. I felt tiny, humbled, and strangely held. If you’ve never met Signora Etna, you haven’t yet understood what it means to stand in the presence of something ancient that still chooses to be gentle with you. That day at Terra Costantino, she didn’t just show me her wines — she showed me her soul. And mine answered.

A Family Story Written in Lava

I arrived already half in love. The southeastern slopes near Viagrande, 500 meters up, seven kilometers from the crater and seven from the sea. One side of the property: Etna rumbling. The other: the Mediterranean sparkling. It felt like standing at the edge of the world. Fabio Costantino met me with the quiet smile of a man who has spent his life listening to this mountain. Born in 1974, trained as a construction engineer, he could have stayed in his father’s building business. But the vines planted by Dino in 1970 purely “for the heart” kept calling him home.

Fabio and Dino Costantino

Dino started it all as pure joy, not business. In 1978 they sold bulk wine to people passing on the road. Fabio joined in the early 2000s, bottled their first wines in 2005, and in 2015 brought in enologist Luca d’Attoma to push everything higher. Their dream was simple and profound: “Etna in the glass.” Nothing more, nothing less. Walking beside Fabio, I felt I wasn’t visiting a winery, I was being invited into a family love letter written across decades of lava.

Walking the Vines: Guardians, Not Owners

The old bush-trained vines — Nerello Mascalese, Carricante, stubborn pre-phylloxera survivors — dig roots ten meters deep through centuries of lava. Fabio showed me the “new soil” that falls from the sky every eruption: ash that renews everything. Dangerous for roofs and motorcycles, he laughed, but pure magic for the land.

Their vineyard is a true Sicilian garden — cherries, kiwi, pears growing between the rows. Biodiversity isn’t a marketing word here; it’s protection, respect, life. “We are not the owners,” Fabio told me softly. “We are just the guardians for the next generations.” His wife Gabriela, their children David and Delena, the team who feel like family — they all pour their hearts into this earth. Hearing him name them with such tenderness made my throat tighten. This is love you can taste.

The Wines: Etna in Every Glass

Then came the tasting that still makes my chest ache.

The deAetna Bianco — Carricante queen with Catarratto and a whisper of Minella. That tiny indigenous grape (named for its “small breast” shape in Sicilian) adds nothing but history and a little sexiness, Fabio said with a grin. The wine tasted like cold sea spray and lemon blossom, acidity so alive it made my eyes water.

The Rosato — made from the best red grapes, salty, mineral, bitter-edged, nothing sweet. “Perfect with pizza, pasta, or meat,” Fabio smiled. It carried the soul of Etna wrapped in Provençal clarity.

The Etna Rosso — 90% Nerello Mascalese with a touch of Cappuccio — elegant, smoky, dark cherry. And then the Contrada Blandano Rosso Riserva from their oldest vines: cooled overnight, gently fermented in concrete, aged in 500-liter barrels, released only after four years. Red plum, fine tannins, smoke, and time itself. Each glass felt like a conversation with the mountain.

That Unforgettable Moment When She Spoke

We were deep in the vineyards, Fabio explaining their low-intervention philosophy — fix everything in the field, give the wine time, never rush — when Signora Etna decided to answer in person.

A sudden, thunderous blast. Ash and smoke exploded into the sky. The ground trembled just enough to remind us who was in charge. Everyone froze. Fabio looked up with the calmest, knowing smile, as if greeting an old neighbor. My heart hammered. Tears came without warning. If you believe in signals from the universe, this was the loudest one I’ve ever received. She was watching. She approved. She was part of every vine, every bottle, every story. At that moment the wines stopped being “fantastic.” They became sacred.

Inside the Podcast: Heart-to-Heart with Fabio

Later we sat down for the Italian Wine Podcast. What started as an interview became something much deeper. We laughed about foot-crushing grapes in the ancient Palmento “just for fun,” about the underground cellar Fabio designed himself (because he’s still an engineer at heart) with its 10-meter window showing lava layers and roots reaching for water. We spoke about patience, about Rasula — the tiny ancestral wine his father made only for friends — about the dream of Etna DOCG and the belief that “everyone grows with the wine.”

His voice softened when he talked about legacy, about treating old vines like heritage, about never releasing young wines because the mountain deserves time. Listening to him, I felt my own heart rearrange.

You can hear the warmth, the laughter, and the reverence here: Ep. 1995 Mauricio de Chiaro interviews Fabio Costantino or whenever you get your pods!

Taking a Piece of the Mountain Home

Driving away, Etna still gently rumbling behind me, I carried bottles like pieces of my own soul. The wines of Terra Costantino aren’t just authentic — they are alive with terroir, with Fabio’s thoughtful philosophy, with a family’s quiet devotion, and with the volcano’s own heartbeat.

If life ever brings you to Etna, please go. Walk these terraces. Taste these wines. Stand where Signora Etna can see you. And if you’re lucky, if your heart is open, she might roar her approval too.

Discovering Italy’s Hidden Gems with The Wine Partners

As the heart behind The Wine Partners buyers club, my greatest joy is hunting for Italy’s true hidden gems and sharing them with our members across three continents. We’ve travelled to Etna three times as a team, but this visit to Terra Costantino was my very first, and it has stayed with me in the deepest way. The place, the people, the wines, and above all Signora Etna herself are simply unforgettable. I’m already planning my return every single year, because some discoveries don’t just move you — they become part of who you are. If you’d love to taste these treasures (and many more like them) delivered straight to your door, I’d be honoured to welcome you into our little family.