Winemaker Notes
The wine color is pale yellow with bright greenish tints. The scent is intense, while also delicate with hints of orange blossom and ripe apple. The taste and body are dry, with mineral, and with a aromatic persistence and aftertaste of anise and almond.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The nose presents saline, fresh and slightly grassy aromas of new sneaker, white pepper, lemon and lime, while the palate is juicier and denser with flavors of white peach, yellow apple and dried lemon, but remains lively thanks to powerful currents of acid and salt.
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James Suckling
This has the richness of the 2021 vintage but isn’t heavy or ponderous. It shows intensity of flavor with pie crust, light caramel and dried fruits. Full-bodied, it has a phenolic tension and acidity that give this form.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Fresh white peach, citrus blossoms, candied lime, and wet stones lift from the 2022 Etna Bianco Contrada Cavaliere. Coming from the southwestern slope of the volcano, which is a more inland and sheltered area of Etna, it’s medium-bodied, fruity, and approachable upfront, with a delicate, pithy, stony texture, its more savory citrus notes shining through the finish.
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Decanter
The 2022 Etna Bianco Contrada Cavaliere is youthfully coy with a delicately perfumed mix of wildflowers, white smoke and ginger-tinged green apples. Built on purity, it’s lifted and refined with a burst of saline minerality up front and crisp orchard fruits that add a crunchy sensation toward the close. The 2022 finishes staining and long with youthful tension, a tinge of salinity and a sensation of liquid stone.
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Wine Spectator
This bright, open-knit white crackles with acidity, showing zesty hints of white pepper and grapefruit peel, plus notes of peach skin, smoke, preserved lemon and lentils. Salty finish.
At the end of the 1800’s, Giuseppe Benanti, grandfather of Dr. Giuseppe Benanti, began the production of wines on one of his father’s old farms on the slopes of Mount Etna, at Viagrande (Catania). In 1988, Giuseppe Benanti revived the family’s old passion, with an extensive and selective study of the Etnean soils highly devoted to viticulture. He also investigated particular clones of indigenous vines and new oenological techniques to reproduce ancient fragrances using the most modern practices of vinification, in a perfect union of history and reality. From this five year study, wines of unique taste were produced recreating old flavors and keeping them intact over time.
Our wines have a strong personality and carry the culture and passion for wine of the Benanti family, always driven by respect for the places, terroir and old 'palmenti'. This passion, after revealing the marvels of the Etnean territory, has guided them to Pantelleria and then Pachino. Today the company, also run by Giuseppe Benanti’s sons, Antonio and Salvino, is placed in a market range of high quality level products and the request for its wines is strongly increasing. This is mainly due to the quality of its wines, known throughout Italy and abroad, and attested by many awards given annually by the most important national and international competitions.
Carricante has grown on the slopes of Sicily’s Mt. Etna for the last thousand years. It is the dominant grape in Etna Bianco DOC blends, with Catarratto as a possible minor blending partner. The best examples come from volcanic soils at higher altitudes where a large diurnal temperature shift allows slow and steady ripening and the development of Carricante’s naturally high acidity. Somm Secret—A vine variety capable of high yields if not tended to properly, Carricante gets its name from, carica, the Italian word for “load.”
A large, geographically and climatically diverse island, just off the toe of Italy, Sicily has long been recognized for its fortified Marsala wines. But it is also a wonderful source of diverse, high quality red and white wines. Steadily increasing in popularity over the past few decades, Italy’s fourth largest wine-producing region is finally receiving the accolades it deserves and shining in today's global market.
Though most think of the climate here as simply hot and dry, variations on this sun-drenched island range from cool Mediterranean along the coastlines to more extreme in its inland zones. Of particular note are the various microclimates of Europe's largest volcano, Mount Etna, where vineyards grow on drastically steep hillsides and varying aspects to the Ionian Sea. The more noteworthy red and white Sicilian wines that come from the volcanic soils of Mount Etna include Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio (reds) and Carricante (whites). All share a racy streak of minerality and, at their best, bear resemblance to their respective red and white Burgundies.
Nero d’Avola is the most widely planted red variety, and is great either as single varietal bottling or in blends with other indigenous varieties or even with international ones. For example, Nero d'Avola is blended with the lighter and floral, Frappato grape, to create the elegant, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, one of the more traditional and respected Sicilian wines of the island.
Grillo and Inzolia, the grapes of Marsala, are also used to produce aromatic, crisp dry Sicilian white. Pantelleria, a subtropical island belonging to the province of Sicily, specializes in Moscato di Pantelleria, made from the variety locally known as Zibibbo.