Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Etna Bianco Superiore Contrada Rinazzo has another gear and is beautifully layered and yet weightless. In the glass, it has a bright, platinum-yellow hue and offers notes of crystallized honey, lemon curd, sea spray, petrol, and white pineapples. Medium to full-bodied, it boasts a gorgeous, waxy, glycerin-rich citrus oil texture. The acidity is a bit more modest in this vintage, but it shows no oxidation and has a pure and textural nature.
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Vinous
A burst of flinty stone and smoke gives way to minty herbs and crushed green apples as the 2022 Etna Bianco Superiore Contrada Rinazzo blossoms in the glass. It washes across the palate with textures of pure silk as saline minerals saturate and citrus-tinged orchard fruits cascade throughout. The 2022 keeps the energy remarkably high, excited by zesty acidity as hints of sour grapefruit curl the tongue throughout the long and youthfully tense finale. The Rinazzo is enjoyable today, but it also possesses a balance that will reward cellaring. Beautifully done.
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Wine Spectator
A structured white, offering rapier-like acidity tightly meshed with flavors of crunchy white peach, green almond, crushed pine, lemon wax and petrol. There's good tension and focus; this should open nicely with short-term cellaring. Best after 2026.
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.