Winemaker Notes
Tornatore Etna Bianco has a striking straw-yellow color with reflections of green. Intensely aromatic and focused on the palate, the wine has fruit notes of grapefruit, white peach, melon and tangerine that are framed by hints of fresh-cutgreen herbs, oyster shell and slate. This is a wine of great depth and complexity that finishes with refreshing salinity and zesty acidity.
Blend: 100% Carricante
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Heady aromas of Spanish broom, summer orchard fruit and crushed stone shape the enticing nose. Creamy and bright, the elegant palate delivers white peach, Meyer lemon, pear and saline-like mineral notes, all framed in refreshing acidity.
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James Suckling
For a basic Etna bianco, the concentration here is very impressive, as it delivers citrus, nectarines and Granny Smith apples. Lots of energy on the medium-bodied palate, in the form of crisp acidity and a zippy finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Tornatore 2018 Etna Bianco offers big floral intensity with white jasmine and yellow rose that rise from the glass with elegance and purpose. Made in stainless steel only, this wine offers a unique taste of Carricante because it shows more floral intensity compared to many of its peers. The wine is bright and buoyant with that kind of glossy intensity that reminds me of a low-key Burgundian white. The Tornatore team successfully harvested their Carricante before the autumn rains.
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Wine Spectator
Sleek and light- to medium-bodied, this white is lip-smacking, with well-cut acidity upfront. A range of ripe white cherry, salted almond, lemon thyme and nectarine flavors pushes through and expands on the creamy palate, with a lingering, spiced finish.
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.