Terrazze dell Etna Cinniri Etna Bianco 2024
£25.45
The wine
Intense straw yellow with green hues, showing ripe yellow fruit alongside elegant smoky notes.
Etna Bianco is Carricante, grown higher than almost any other vine in Europe, and the smoky note comes straight from the black volcanic soil. Cinniri means ash. Etna is an active volcano, and each eruption lays down new soil, so vineyards a few hundred metres apart can sit on lava flows centuries apart in age. The contrada system works much as the climat system does in Burgundy: named sites on the same mountain giving recognisably different wines. Terraces are walled in dry lava stone and the vines are often alberello, head-trained as low bushes.
The producer
Terrazze dell'Etna
View all Terrazze dell'Etna winesTerrazze dell'Etna farms the black volcanic terraces of Mount Etna, one of the most thrilling wine landscapes on earth. At altitude on Sicily's active volcano, the vines draw energy and minerality from soils of lava, ash and sand.
Here the indigenous grapes reign, Nerello Mascalese for the reds and Carricante for the whites. The dramatic diurnal swings of the mountain preserve freshness and perfume that feel closer to the mountains of the north than the Mediterranean below.
The Cirneco Etna Rosso is a red of red-fruit clarity and fine, savoury tannin, while the Ciuri and Cinniri whites capture the smoky, citrus-edged tension that only Etna can give.
Vivid, mineral and utterly of their place, these are wines for the adventurous palate. Discover the fire and grace of Etna.
