Before coming to Etna Urban Winery, I didn’t really think about what the word urban meant in “urban winery.” I assumed it simply meant close to the city. After spending time here, I realised it’s much more than that.
Yes, Etna Urban Winery is just minutes from the centre of Catania. People can reach it by bus, walking part of the way along busy streets. I still hear traffic from the vineyard. I still feel the city is nearby. But once I step inside the winery, everything slows down.
That contrast is where the idea of an urban winery really begins.
What is a "Urban Winery"
Traditionally, wineries are far from cities, quiet, isolated, surrounded only by vineyards. I used to think that was the only way a winery could exist. Etna Urban Winery showed me something different.
The winery is part of the Urban Vineyard Association (UVA), which was founded in Turin in 2018. The association works to protect vineyards located close to cities and to keep alive winemaking traditions that grew alongside urban life.
I learned that urban vineyards are often historic spaces. They were there long before the city expanded around them. Instead of disappearing, they continue to exist, adapting, but staying rooted.
Being here helped me understand that wine is not always the only thing in a vineyard. Sometimes the most important thing is preserving knowledge, ways of working with the land that have been passed down for generations.
Urban vineyards connect different worlds:
- the past and the future
- the countryside and the city
- tradition and everyday life
Walking through the vineyard after lunch, with the sound of the city not so far away, made this idea very real to me.
Etna Urban Winery in Catania
The vineyard at Etna Urban Winery was closed for several years. In 2018, the family decided to bring it back to life and produced their first red wine.
Today, the winery produces red and rosé wines using native grape varieties such as Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Capuccio, and Carricante. These vineyards have historical importance in the area and were once known as some of the great vineyards of Catania.
Now, they exist again, not as a memory, but as a living place.
Working here, I’ve started to understand that Etna Urban Winery is urban not just because of where it is, but because of how it lives within the city of Catania. It keeps a piece of Sicily’s agricultural heart alive, right where people pass by every day.
That’s what makes it an urban winery.
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