Carricante

Carricante is the great white grape of Mount Etna in eastern Sicily — a high-acid, mineral, ageworthy variety that is the heart of the Etna Bianco DOC and, at its summit, the Etna Bianco Superiore of the village of Milo. Grown on the volcano's terraced lava slopes at some of the highest altitudes of any vineyard in Europe, it yields a taut, pale, savoury white built around lemon and green apple, white flowers, anise and a smoky, flinty minerality. Where most Sicilian whites are warm and soft, Carricante is cool, bracing and saline — a wine of acidity and stone rather than ripe fruit. Slow to reveal itself, it is one of southern Italy's few truly long-lived whites, gaining honey, almond and smoke with years in bottle.