Why it matters
The producer
The Costa family came to wine by way of bees. Their estate in Zafferana Etnea, on the quieter eastern side of Mount Etna, began as a honey operation in 1988 and still runs close to a thousand hives, producing around 30 tonnes of honey each year. The vineyard came later, added across family time and now covering five hectares on the volcanic slopes at 550 metres above sea level.
Sebastiano Costa owns the estate. His son Domenico manages it, and oenologist Leonardo La Corte shapes the wines. In March 2026, the family inaugurated a new winery and launched three traditional-method sparkling wines from Nerello Mascalese, the red mountain grape that anchors everything they grow. The wine side of the business arrived after the beekeeping but has moved fast.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Zafferana Etnea sits on Etna's eastern flank, a side of the volcano that draws fewer wine tourists than the north but shares the same geological character: basalt-rich volcanic soils, mineral vigour, and altitude that slows ripening through long, cool growing seasons. At 550 metres, the estate sits high enough that the nights stay fresh well into harvest, holding the acidity in both red and white grapes and keeping aromatics from going flat.
The Etna DOC label, which covers all the estate's wines, frames the eastern slope within the broader Etna wine zone. Nerello Mascalese is the principal red grape of the DOC, responsible for wines that combine red-fruit character with the savoury, mineral edge that volcanic soils produce. Carricante is the key white grape on the eastern side, known for its firm acidity and citrus-driven profile.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The five hectares divide roughly into three vineyard ages. The oldest terraced parcels are over 80 years old, trained on the low, bush-pruned systems common to older Etna holdings. The central block, just over three hectares, is around 40 years old and planted with a co-mingled mix of red and white varieties: Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, Catarratto, Carricante, and Minnella growing together in the same rows, harvested and fermented as the old Etna tradition allows. A younger parcel of about ten years rounds out the estate.
In the cellar, De Rerum Aetna follows a precise path: three months on fine lees, then 18 months in a 2,000-litre cask made from chestnut grown on Etna itself. Chestnut is a traditional ageing wood in Sicily, less neutral than French oak but softer in tannin transfer than new barrique, and at that volume the influence is gradual. The wine has time to develop its character before release.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range carries the Etna DOC designation across four styles, with a new sparkling tier added in 2026.
De Rerum Aetna is 100% Nerello Mascalese, the estate's red flagship. It spends 21 months between lees and chestnut cask before release, giving it the depth of a wine built for a few years in the bottle. The palate is dry and velvety, with developed tannins and a long savoury finish. Aromatically it pulls in multiple directions at once: withered rose and red-fruit jam alongside cocoa, leather, tobacco, wet stone, balsamic, and spice.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
De Rerum Aetna is the bottle. It is 100% Nerello Mascalese from five-hectare volcanic parcels at 550 metres, aged three months on fine lees and then 18 months in a 2,000-litre Etna chestnut cask. The wine is dry, with a velvety mouthfeel and developed tannins: no sweetness, no raw oak, nothing to obscure the way the grape and the mountain translate into the glass. The aromatic range is wide, from dried rose through red-fruit jam to wet stone and balsamic, and the finish is long and savoury. It is the wine that shows what the Costa family is actually doing with this piece of eastern Etna, and why the chestnut cask matters.