Barone di Villagrande winery

At Barone di Villagrande, wine is inseparable from the family’s long relationship with Etna. The Nicolosi Asmundo family has lived and worked on these lands since the beginning of the 17th century, when the Bishop of Catania charged them with transforming the mountain’s harsh fields into cultivated ground. Ten generations later, that bond remains at the heart of the estate.

The family’s connection with Villagrande was formally recognised in 1727, when the Emperor Charles VI of Augsburg, King of Naples, bestowed Don Carmelo Nicolosi with the title of Baron of Villagrande. Their work continued across the transition from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to a unified Italy, with the vines gradually becoming an enduring part of the landscape and family identity.

In 1869, Paolo Nicolosi built a new cellar for winemaking and refinement, introducing a distinction between the processing of white and red grapes. At a time when grapes were commonly blended without regard to colour or variety, his approach sought to express the character of individual varieties and laid the foundations for what is now known as Etna Bianco Superiore.

The family also contributed to the formal history of Etna wine. When the Etna DOC was established in 1968—the first in Sicily—the regulations were written by Carlo Nicolosi Asmundo, a professor of oenology and food technology at the University of Catania. Today, Marco Nicolosi, as winemaker and production manager, continues to work with the estate’s heritage and the distinctive qualities of its volcanic wine-growing territory.

Barone di Villagrande presents its wines as an expression of that continuing relationship: between roots and fields, time and maturity, family and place. The story, begun generations ago on Etna’s demanding slopes, is still being written.