Growing grapes on the scorched slopes of a volcano that’s still spewing fire, smoke, and lava is as extreme as viticulture gets.
The reward for the risk—in some cases, grapes are grown on volcanoes that could erupt at any time—is the world’s most exciting wines.
2018 is turning out to be the year for wine’s lava lovers. The inaugural International Volcanic Wine Conference descended on New York at the end of March, following volcanic wine events at two recent European trade fairs, Vinisud in France and ProWein in Germany.
Why are these wines getting so much buzz?
The push is not just some marketing gimmick. Volcanic soils account for only 1 percent of the world’s surface but contribute a much larger percentage of the world’s great vineyards, such as those on Santorini. The Greek island’s salty, tangy whites burst upon the New York wine scene a couple of summers ago to wild acclaim.
Ash-enriched soil is also responsible for smoky, earthy reds and whites born in the shadow of Sicily’s Mount Etna; they have captivated adventurous wine lovers looking to shock their palates with something different.
Master sommelier Dustin Wilson, co-founder of New York-based Verve Wine, recently told me that his current fascination is Spain’s Canary Islands, whose volcanic landscapes look positively apocalyptic. Sales of these wines outside their native land grew more than 40 percent in 2017, according to the island’s association of winegrowers and winemakers.
The volcanic wine movement is still in its infancy, but Toronto master sommelier John Szabo, the author of Volcanic Wines: Salt, Grit and Power (Jacqui Small, $19.88), a gorgeously photographed book published last year, is busy trying to add momentum. He masterminded the New York conference, for which he rounded up 40-odd wineries from regions in countries from Italy to Hungary to California to Chile.
“All of my favorite wines come from dormant or active volcanoes,” Szabo admits in a phone interview.
Szabo attributes their current hotness to a confluence of factors.