If you were to experience today’s wine in the place where it is made—a terraced vineyard rooted in black pumice, with the smoldering, snow-capped peak of Mount Etna looming in the distance—it would be etched in your memory forever. You might not want to drink anything else: That’s the power of this place, as anyone who’s visited this still-active Sicilian volcano will tell you. Still, this shimmering, mineral white will stay with you even if your first sip is at your kitchen counter. Real wines of place do that.
Even more interesting to me is how often Etna whites are compared to those of another, radically different place: Chablis. Blessed with high altitudes, mineral-rich soils, and a well-adapted native variety (Carricante), Ciro Biondi and his wife, Stef, craft impeccable wines in minuscule quantities, working out of an ancient stone palmento and caring for spectacular terraced vineyards that have been in his family for generations. What a life, and what a wine: The whites of Etna, like the reds, are claiming their rightful place among the world’s elite. Time to get some in your cellar!
Spanning roughly five hectares on the southeast slope of Mount Etna, the Ciro Biondi label and winery is relatively new, having been founded in 1999. Ciro Biondi’s ancestors had bottled wine under the Biondi family label more than a century ago, but while an assortment of vineyard holdings passed down through the generations, they weren’t always well cared-for. Ciro, an architect, renovated an old stone winery structure (palmento) in one of the three small, lovingly restored vineyards he owns in the village of Trecastagni. All three sites sit at altitudes ranging from 600-700 meters, with east/southeast expositions and soils comprised mainly of Etna’s mineral-rich volcanic pumice. Vines are trained in the traditional alberello, or “bush,” method: they look like miniature orchards, which in fact they are.
Etna’s native Carricante grape, which continues to grow in esteem among the experts, comprises the majority of this 2019 (90%). On its own, Carricante can almost be a little too savory/mineral/austere, so here it’s supported with some aromatic supporting players such as Catarratto, Malvasia, and Minella. Pressed immediately upon harvest, it was fermented and then aged for eight months in stainless steel tanks before bottling.
The magic of Mount Etna, as reflected in this bright, high-energy white, is that it is at once a cool climate—with, as you might expect, some of the most dramatic day-night temperature swings in the world—and a place of intense luminosity, resulting in wines that combine full ripeness and balancing freshness. The ’18 “Outis” is a pale straw-gold in the glass, with delicate aromas of white peach, yellow apple, chamomile, wet stones, wild herbs, and smoke. On the palate, it is medium-bodied and laser-focused, with a chalky, saline quality that lends grip on the palate. Over the next few years it will put on weight and the citrusy notes will give way to more stone fruit and honey, but it is plenty tasty and accessible now: simply pull the cork 15-20 minutes before serving in all-purpose white wine stems at 45-50 degrees. And, as Sicily is one of the world’s greatest seafood cultures, it’s no surprise that this white is designed for all manner of frutti di mare: especially some briny shellfish, which find their way into the attached recipe. Everything about this is just right and should be repeated as often as possible over the next few months. Enjoy!
