Wild Flowers, Herbaceous, Citrus

Italy / White / Carricante, Minella, Catarratto / Organic, Biodynamic

The 140yo ungrafted vines are scattered among the nerellos and some of them are so ancient that the varieties are unknown. The whole bunches are slowly pressed in two 500ltr barrels for fermentation and ageing – one French and one made by a local tonnelier from the farm's 100yo chestnut trees. Bottled in June the following year, no SO2 was added at all. Another great volcanic wine made on Etna, So much aromatics paired with saltyness and vibrancy. Yes please!

Notes on the producer

Federica and Cesare left their life in Catania in 2005 (where she worked as an archery teacher and he as an airline pilot) in search of a simple, peaceful, hard-working lifestyle and purchased this tiny, unique 1.7ha clos planted with 120-140yo vines in the Contrada del Pino.

Located on the slopes of Mount Etna at 800m, uphill from Randazzo, this is the highest altitude at which nerello mascalese and cappucio can reliably and consistently ripen. They also have 400 ancient olive trees (from which they produce three exceptional olive oils from the san benedetto, coratina and brandofino cultivars), chestnut and oak trees, a vegetable garden, sheep, dogs, chicken... Among the vines you also find many fruit trees – cherry, pear, plum, fig, peach, apple. This is Etna in all its pastoral serenity with the sight, scents and sounds of the volcano to stimulate the senses. Viticulture here eschews herbicides, fungicides, pesticides but they don't follow any prescribed rules. The health of the vineyard is paramount. Another important thing to note is that 90% of the vines are planted on their own rather than being grafted onto American rootstock.