Best Time for an Etna Wine Tour

Dates and times for the most-reviewed Etna wine tasting are below.

Which month suits which visit

September’s average high near Catania is about 30°C, against 31°C in June, and rain returns, at about 50 mm. Overnight stays in the Catania area in September are 84 percent of August’s, close to the 79 percent of May, so the harvest month is not a quiet one either. The overnight-stay figures count people sleeping in the province in 2025, not people at a winery, so they show the direction and not the queue at a tasting room.

Other experiences you might enjoy

Around Taormina, Castelmola, the Alcantara Gorge, Catania’s Fish Market and the craters of Mount Etna, you can add food tours, cooking classes, boat trips and guided volcano walks to a Sicily trip.

The grape harvest

Picking usually starts in late September and runs into October. Three producers publish their dates. In 2021 Donnafugata picked Nerello Mascalese for its red from September 23 and finished on October 15. In 2022 Planeta picked Nerello Mascalese between 510 and 610 m and Carricante between 815 and 860 m, all in the first ten days of October. In 2025 the last Etna grapes at Planeta’s Sciaranuova vineyard were picked on October 18. The dates move with the grape, the altitude of the vineyard and the year. Picking ran to October 15 in 2021, to October 10 in 2022 and to October 18 in 2025, so it can run into the second half of October, and a visit in the first days of September is usually too early.

Seeing the work depends on the estate, so ask. One third-party guide says that Passopisciaro, Benanti and Graci, three estates open by appointment, have limited availability in September, October and the summer high season, so book a harvest-month tasting early.

Two festivals fall near the harvest. ViniMilo, the wine festival in Milo, ran from August 27 to September 13 in 2026, before most picking starts. The Ottobrata Zafferanese, in Zafferana Etnea, took place on the Sundays of October in 2025, which were the 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th.

A small-group day such as the two-winery small-group tour from Taormina suits the harvest months, because a small group can be fitted around an estate’s working day more easily than a coach.

Heat, rain and the height of the vineyards

The figures below are Catania-area reference temperatures: long-term averages for a plain about 15 km inland and 24 m above sea level, the nearest place with official published averages. Etna’s vineyards mostly sit between about 400 and 1,000 m, hundreds of meters above the coast, and are usually cooler. Nothing official at that height publishes monthly averages, so read the plain’s figures as an upper bound for the temperature at a winery, and as a way to compare months rather than a forecast for your tasting.

A rainy day here means 1 mm or more, and rainfall is the total for the whole month in millimeters, where 25 mm is about an inch. May and October have almost the same average high near Catania, and October has about twice as many rainy days and more than three times the rain, which is why October is the harvest alternative and not a first choice. June is warmer than May, with about 18 days at or above 30°C against about 5, so May leads and June follows with hotter afternoons.

Winter: November to February

Winter is quieter and more cellar-focused. Donnafugata’s Etna estate says it welcomes visitors all year, and it is open every day except Monday with reservations required, but it closes from January 13 to 27 and on some holidays, which shows how individual estates set their own days. Ask any other estate before you plan around it. The vines are dormant, so there is no green canopy and no harvest to see, and a tasting inside a cellar does not depend on the weather. This is a good time for a visitor who cares more about the tasting and the winemaking than the vineyard scenery.

Highs near Catania are 16 to 17°C from December to February, December is the wettest month, with about 79 mm and eight rainy days, and sunset falls between about 4:40 and 5:40 p.m. The Catania area had between 35 and 40 percent of August’s overnight stays in these months in 2025, and the president of the Taormina hoteliers’ association told the newspaper La Sicilia in January 2026 that about 1,500 hotel beds in Taormina stay open in January and February and the season starts in mid-March.

A day that adds the volcano changes in winter. The full-day tour from Taormina with the Alcantara canyons lists snowshoes among its equipment for winter departures, and Funivia dell’Etna uses snowcats in winter to reach the highest altitude the authorities allow.

Days that add the volcano

Access to the upper mountain follows municipal ordinances and volcanic-risk zones, not the calendar, and it can limit certain zones or heights rather than closing the whole mountain. The Etna park says mayoral ordinances set the altitudes up to which free hiking is allowed and the ones where a guide is required. The ordinance of the town of Bronte of August 14, 2026 suspends excursions in the permanent hazard zone, which covers the summit craters and, roughly, everything above 2,500 m plus a safety belt around active vents, until the emergency ends, and it exempts authorized mountain and volcano guides.

Activity has been changing quickly. The aviation alert for volcanic ash was red on September 16, lowered to orange on September 18, and red again on September 24, when a new eruptive phase sent an ash cloud about 4 km high and Catania airport cut its landings from ten to five an hour for part of the day, according to press reports. These were the latest reports we could read on September 29, 2026, and they will be out of date, so check the INGV Etna observatory before your day.

Funivia dell’Etna’s own pages give its cable-car hours as 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. every day, subject to weather and technical requirements, and they list no seasonal closing dates. No authority publishes how often access is restricted, so the mountain part of an itinerary can change in any month, while a cellar tasting is not affected. If the crater stop matters to you, ask the operator whether the itinerary changes when the upper mountain is restricted, or choose a wine-only day such as the Taormina half-day tasting.

Start time and time of day

In July and August highs near Catania are about 34°C, with about 29 days in July and 30 in August at or above 30°C, and the vineyards are cooler. If your tour offers a choice of departures, morning is more comfortable in those months, especially if the itinerary includes vineyard walks or a stop high on the mountain. On a group tour the operator sets the departure times, so choose among the ones offered, and many tastings happen indoors anyway.

Sunset matters mainly on tours sold as late-afternoon or sunset departures. The sunset tour from Catania with wine tasting is one, and its listing says the departure time can move earlier depending on the month of booking. Sunset is at about 8:20 p.m. in mid-July, and from November to February it falls between about 4:40 and 5:40 p.m., so a late tour in winter finishes after dark. Italy’s national tourism portal calls sunset the best time to visit the volcano in midsummer, because it is less crowded and the sun is not beating down on the lava.

Check your date

Choosing the month for a wider Sicily trip

Most visitors choose their dates for Sicily as a whole, not for one wine day. For Sicily near Etna, May offers the best balance, with comfortable weather near Catania, and June is a close second, although its afternoons are hotter. October is the alternative if the harvest matters, with about five rainy days against three in May, and July and August average about 34°C on the plain. From November to February overnight stays in Catania province are 35 to 40 percent of August’s, so it is a quieter time to visit, with cooler weather and shorter days. Taormina’s hotel season opens in mid-March. Once your dates are fixed, three things are still yours to choose: the side of the volcano, a wine-only tasting or a day that adds a crater stop, and the start time. The north slope around Linguaglossa and Randazzo holds most of the estates that welcome visitors, and the south and east slopes are closer to Catania.

Month by month

Booking and cancelling

Every tour we checked offers free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start, so the sensible approach is to book once your dates are fixed, watch the forecast and the volcano status, and decide the day before. None of the operators we checked publishes a lead time. One sunset listing says weather can change the route.

Wear layers in any month, because the upper mountain is cooler than the plain, and bring a hat and water from June to September.

How we know

Which format suits you is covered in which Etna wine tour is right for you, and getting there in how to get to Etna from Taormina. The estates are covered in best wineries on Mount Etna, the routes in the Etna wine route guide, and each departure point in Etna wine tours from Catania and Etna wine tours from Taormina.

Frequently asked questions