Winemaker Notes
#33 of Wine Enthusiast's Top 100 of 2020
Intense straw yellow, with light green reflections. Pleasant hints of exotic fruits, especially of grapefruit and white peach, mark the nose of this wine which shows its true identity on the palate with a pleasant flavor and freshness complemented by an extraordinary minerality and light taste sweetness.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Made predominantly from Carricante with a drop of Catarratto, this smooth, stunning white offers delicate, enticing scents of Spanish broom, chamomile, ripe white-stone fruit and a whiff of smoke. Savory and loaded with elegance, the medium-bodied, focused palate features juicy Meyer lemon, ripe Bartlett pear, golden apple and tangy, saline mineral notes. Bright acidity lends tension and balance.
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James Suckling
Fresh pineapple, apricot stone, lemon and sea shell on the nose. It’s medium-bodied with crisp acidity and a textured, layered palate. Focused and delicious. Carricante and catarratto. Drink now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This wine is Carricante with a tiny 5% Catarratto thrown in for extra textural support. The 2019 Etna Bianco Pietrarizzo ages in oak for five brief months, but the wine remains fresh and fruity nonetheless. It was first produced in 2015 and has proven to be very reflective of vintage, with highs and lows directly linked to the conditions of the growing season. This is a very good vintage, one that produced extra richness and fruit concentration, with honey, apricot and Golden Delicious apple. There are subtle dustings of cinnamon and saffron as well.
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.