The Allure of “Volcanic Wines” – with John Szabo MS

Volcanic soils account for only around one percent of the earth’s surface, but they produce some of the world’s most alluring wines. Many are familiar with the volcanic wines of Italy, Greece, Spain, California and Pacific Northwest in the Northern Hemisphere. And below the equator there are Chile and New Zealand But then there are the smaller volcanic pockets like the Azores and Canary Islands. Still, not all volcanic areas can produce wine. There are many factors involved.

Master Sommelier John Szabo took a deep dive into the volcanic world of wines many years ago and has traveled extensively for his field research. He is author of “Volcanic Wines- Salt Grit and Power” and master-minded an International Volcanic Wine Summit held in New York. The last one was held in 2024.

In 2004, Szabo became Canada’s first Master Sommelier. In addition to his work researching and writing on volcanic wines, Szabo is a partner and principal critic for WineAlign.com, Canada’s largest wine publication and a buyer for the WineAlign Exchange wine club. He co-hosts the podcast, Wine Thieves, with Sara d’Amato, a fellow critic at WineAlign

Szabo says he fell into writing about volcanic wines by accident. “About fifteen or so years ago, an editor of mine asked me to write one of those light end-of-year articles, like a paragraph about your favorite wine. So, there I was at my desk, trying to be a little clever. I started to think about some areas that I had recently visited with some interesting wines. I had just visited Etna and recently been to Santorini. I had been back in Hungary tasting some wines there, and the north shores of Lake Balaton and up in Tokai. It finally dawned on me that the only thing that kind of related to all of these totally disparate regions was the fact that they were volcanic regions with volcanic soils. So, I thought, ‘Okay! I’m going to be a tongue- in -cheek and wrote my little paragraph saying, my favorite wine, you know, it rose on the side of a volcano.’ The editor read this, and said, ‘that’s an interesting concept.’

She asked me to produce a full -length article and I told her ‘I don’t know, let me look into it.’ And I did, and then that’s when I started to scratch a little deeper beneath the surface and realized there’s an amazing world of volcanic wines out there. It sounds like a completely niche category, but it covers virtually every major wine growing continent.”

Szabo told us, “The first thing people ask me is ‘what is a volcanic wine?’ It’s simply a wine made from grapes grown on soils derived from volcanic material. And that volcanic material could be you know, three-day old ash on the slopes of Mount Etna, or it could be three hundred-million-year-old lava flows that have developed into the beautiful soils like you have in parts of northern Italy. That for me all qualifies as volcanic.”

He notes, “Leaving behind the other components of terroir, ‘volcanic soil’ is only slightly more descriptive than ‘cheese.’ Cheese is made from milk, and volcanic soil derives from parent volcanic materials.”  And while where are many volcanic regions around the world, not all of them are ideal for growing wine grapes. Two examples are Costa Rica and Guatemala. Check out this list 10 Largest Volcanoes in the World – Largest.org.

Szabo points that there are two main types of volcanic eruption. Effusive eruptions result in waves of lava flows. Szabo also describes this as “fountaining” and “Strombolian (a nod to the volcano by the same name in Sicily). Another example is Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island. We hiked around Kilauea and traipsed over a crackling ground cover of gray lava, some with red-orange hot points beneath the surface. The second type of eruption is “explosive” or “Plinian” which creates a spewing tower of magma filled with gas, silica, basalt, rock. ash and other materials. An example is the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius which covered Pompeii. This is a fascinating visit if you are ever in Naples.

Clearly there are distinctions and differences: location, type of eruption, the age and composition of the magma. So, what are the similarities that distinguish wines made from volcanic soils?

Szabo says, “Wines produced from volcanic soils tend have a savory, mouthwatering quality. These wines have more intense minerality, salinity and higher acidity.” We’ve noticed it from Etna to Vesuvius to the Maremma and in many other wines. The Italians like to refer to this as “sapidity.”

Yet, despite being rich in mineral deposits from eruptions, the volcanic soils are poor. This paradox is a good thing for vines. Szabo explains, “The best volcanic soils for wine growing tend to be younger, rockier, not very fertile, with low water availability, which means that those elements that are all in the soil can’t be dissolved and taken up by a root system. So, the vine is kind of semi parched. You know the water availability is low, but all the other elements in the soil composition) are there. The vines get a broad diet but still remains low vigor which ends up being smaller bunches, smaller berries and more skin than juice which translates into concentrated flavors. We know that struggling vines tend to produce more interesting wines, and vines in volcanic soils, which are also acidic for the most part, make it a challenge for the vine, which is good for us.”

“Volcanic Wines: Salt Grit and Power” was first published in 2016 by Quarto Press. Szabo admits that space limitations for the book meant he could only focus on a few areas, namely Italy, Alsace, Germany, Hungary, Santorini in Europe plus a small chapter on the islands of Macronesia (Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands). In the United States he focuses on Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Chile represents the Southern Hemisphere. Hopefully, a second book will offer him to the chance to explore more. Szabo took many of the book’s photographs.

Listen to our conversation with John Szabo on The Connected Table Live podcast

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