Al-Cantàra Occhi di Ciumi Etna Bianco 2024
£21.75
The wine
A beautifully fresh wine with tropical notes and a core of minerality shining through the spicy flavour, long and saline on the finish. Carricante from 620 metres on the north slope of Etna, which is where the tension comes from.
Etna Bianco is built on Carricante, the volcano's own white grape, here with Grecanico. Carricante is naturally very high in acidity, so much so that it traditionally underwent malolactic conversion the following spring to soften it, and on black volcanic soil at 600 metres it gives a wine of unusual mineral drive.
The producer
Al-Cantàra
View all Al-Cantàra winesAl-Cantara sits on the northern slopes of Etna at Randazzo, and the name comes from the Arabic al-qantara, meaning the bridge, after the river that runs below the estate. Sicily was under Arab rule for more than two centuries, and the language left a great deal behind.
Etna is unlike anywhere else in Italy. The vineyards sit at 600 to 900 metres on black volcanic soil, terraced on the flanks of an active volcano, and the vines are ungrafted because phylloxera cannot survive in the ash. Many are well over a century old, trained as free-standing alberello bushes. The altitude gives a growing season closer to Piedmont than to the rest of Sicily, and Nerello Mascalese has been compared to Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir for good reason.
The wines are named in Sicilian dialect, and the estate is also known for pairing each label with contemporary art and poetry. Farming is organic, and production is small.
