I Custodi

I Custodi delle Vigne dell’Etna was founded in 2007 by Mario Paoluzi, “Roman by birth and Sicilian by adoption.” An engineer by training, Mario moved from Rome down to Catania after graduating to work for his father in the family business. A longstanding passion for wine, however, had been with him from the beginning, as was the dream of one day starting his own winery. An opportunity to make that dream a reality came when Mick Hucknall, who at the time was producing wine on Etna with the support of renowned viticulturist Salvo Foti, decided to sell his property. Mario acquired approximately two hectares of vineyard in Sant’Alfio, on the eastern side of the volcano, whose grapes today are harvested for the bottling Ante, marking the beginning of what would become I Custodi.

The name I Custodi comes from the verb custodire, meaning “to guard” or “to preserve.” For Mario, this means preserving the land, maintaining traditions, and respecting the culture of a place – values that guide the winery and form the foundation of its vision for farming and winemaking. This philosophy is reflected first and foremost in the vineyards: the vines are planted exclusively to indigenous varieties and trained primarily with the traditional alberello system, allowing for high-density planting while preserving the character of Etna’s historic viticulture for generations to come. The steep terrain and high planting density make mechanization impossible in many areas, thus much of the work is carried out by hand, and without irrigation, all while following organic farming practices.

The winery, which was completed in 2016, is situated in the Contrada Moganazzi and was designed with the same emphasis on sustainability and minimizing environmental impact as in the vineyards. Solar panels supply the winery’s electricity, while a traditional system known as the Torre del vento – an ancient technique dating back to the Arab rule in Sicily — helps to regulate the cellar’s temperature naturally. Fermentations are generally carried out with indigenous yeasts, with Salvo Foti continuing to advise on winemaking alongside I Custodi’s dedicated cellar team.

Today, I Custodi farms 18 hectares of vines across the northern and eastern slopes of Etna, with the goal of capturing the unique character of each territory. On the northern slope, the Contrade Moganazzi (aka Muganazzi) and Feudo di Mezzo of Castiglione di Sicilia, are home to vines more than 200 years old, producing the estate’s most long-lived red wines. On the eastern slope, Carricante is primarily grown, reaching its highest expression of elegance and complexity in the Contrade Mertoli and Taverna of Mascali as well as in the Contrada Caselle in Milo, where the estate’s Etna Bianco Superiore is produced.

For I Custodi, working on Etna means accepting the time, effort, and resources required to farm a difficult but extraordinary landscape. For Mario, there is simply no compromising. As he puts it, “producing Etna wine takes time, resources, and effort, but we can’t imagine taking shortcuts to make life easier, because only by respecting tradition can we make wine the way we want to make it.”