From Taormina: Etna Walking Tour Wine Food Tasting in Winery
- Hotel pickup
- Small group
From €159 per personSee dates
What the volcano puts in the glass
Etna was the first wine denomination recognised in Sicily, in 1968. Its zone wraps around the mountain through parts of 20 comuni, from Nicolosi and Zafferana on the south and east slopes, past Milo and Sant’Alfio, to Linguaglossa, Castiglione di Sicilia and Randazzo along the north. The rules set the grapes. An Etna Rosso is at least 80% Nerello Mascalese, with up to 20% Nerello Cappuccio; an Etna Bianco is at least 60% Carricante; and an Etna Bianco Superiore needs 80% Carricante grown in Milo alone. Those are the grapes in the glass on almost every tour here, usually poured with cheese, cured meat and bread.
The 82 tours fall into three kinds of day, and the listing’s title rarely says which.
The volcano first, the winery after. These are most of the full days. Dream Island’s From Taormina: Mount Etna and Wine Full-Day Tour with Lunch picks up around Taormina, walks the Ragabo forest to the 2002 lava front and the Sartorius Craters on the north slope, goes into a lava cave, then sits down to lunch and Etna DOC wines near Linguaglossa. this is life’s From Taormina: Etna Walking Tour Wine Food Tasting in Winery keeps the walk optional: about an hour and a half among side craters at 1,800 to 2,000 m, or coffee at the station, then a winery where a sommelier pairs red and white Etna wines with food, in groups of at most 8.
Read the includes line on these. About one in six of the 82 go into a lava cave, and on some the wine is a single glass at the end. Etna Est’s popular Catania: Mount Etna Morning/Sunset Tour (Pickup & Tasting) is listed here and there as a wine tour, but its tasting is cantucci biscuits and a glass of zibibbo, a sweet wine: it sits with the crater walks on this site.
The winery on its own. Short tastings of one to two hours, mostly at the cellar door, so you arrive by car or taxi. Empeeria’s Mount Etna: Winery Tour and Tasting pours five Gambino wines with a run of Sicilian dishes at a winery about 900 m up the north-east slope. Favazza in Sant'Alfio pours four of its own wines with food from its garden. Closer to the city, La Petralonga’s Catania: Etna Urban Winery Sicilian Lunch with Wine Tasting serves lunch with four Etna wines at a winery dating from 1790, with a shuttle from central Catania for an extra fee from April to October.
Several wineries in a day. Travellers on Reddit say “multiple vineyards in one day isn’t a thing in Sicily”; a handful of listings do it. Prestelli Sicily Tours drives a private party to three family wineries for ten wines with food at each, sold as a guided private day and again as a Taormina tour with private transfer; both pick up around Taormina and Naxos. The Etna Wine Route association’s Linguaglossa: Etna Wine Train Tour & Sicily Wine tasting rides the Circumetnea train from Linguaglossa to Randazzo, then takes a wine bus to two wineries, on Thursdays and Saturdays only. The train does not board in Catania.
On the tours with transport nobody in your party has to drive after the tasting, which is half the reason to book one. Wine is served from 18; Empeeria sells a no-wine youth ticket.