Cottanera Etna Bianco 2018
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100% Carricante from vineyards that sit at 720-750 meters above sea level in Castiglione di Sicilia. Vines are 20 to 25 years old , all planted to alluvial and clay-rich lava soils. Fruit sees a 24-hour cold maceration, followed by fermentation in temperature-controlled tank. Aging sur lie takes place exclusively in stainless steel for 6 months prior to bottling.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Newly trimmed grass springs out from the glass here, joining lemons, limes and Granny Smith apples. Medium to full body, pure acid crunch and a bright finish. Delightful transparency.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Cambria family's passion and expertise are especially evident even in an entry-level white such as this. The 2018 Etna Bianco (with 44,000 bottles made) is a refreshingly fragrant and zesty wine with citrusy aromas of bergamot and lemon blossom followed by white peach. The wine is tonic, fresh and easy-drinking. Cottanera also makes a more structured, single-vineyard expression of Carricante from the Contrada Calderara, but I already reviewed the current 2016 vintage of that wine last year.
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Wine Enthusiast
Fragrant white wildflowers, citrus and a yeasty whiff of bread dough waft out of the glass. Crisp and linear, the racy palate offers yellow apple and grapefruit before closing on notes suggesting white almond and saline.
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In its essence, the story of the Cottanera winery is about a return to one’s roots. The story begins with Francesco Cambria, who, in 1962, seeking a retreat from his career in Messina, bought 100 hectares of vines and hazelnut groves near his birthplace in Randazzo. Francesco cultivated hazelnuts and also initially sold grapes to the local cooperative, but with the arrival of DOC status for Etna in 1968 and hazelnuts losing market share, he soon decided to focus on grape growing for bulk wine production, replanting the hazelnut groves to vines. In the late 1980s, Francesco’s son Guglielmo decided to build a winery to make his own wine, rather than selling the grapes, and he was quite successful selling it “sfuso” in demijohns to local consumers and restaurants. The initial success of these wines pushed Guglielmo to point on quality wine production, so in the mid-1990s, he renovated his father’s vineyards to increase density and lower yields, and the first wines labeled as Cottanera were born.
Carricante has grown on the slopes of Sicily’s Mt. Etna for the last thousand years. It is the dominant grape in Etna Bianco DOC blends, with Catarratto as a possible minor blending partner. The best examples come from volcanic soils at higher altitudes where a large diurnal temperature shift allows slow and steady ripening and the development of Carricante’s naturally high acidity. Somm Secret—A vine variety capable of high yields if not tended to properly, Carricante gets its name from, carica, the Italian word for “load.”
A large, geographically and climatically diverse island, just off the toe of Italy, Sicily has long been recognized for its fortified Marsala wines. But it is also a wonderful source of diverse, high quality red and white wines. Steadily increasing in popularity over the past few decades, Italy’s fourth largest wine-producing region is finally receiving the accolades it deserves and shining in today's global market.
Though most think of the climate here as simply hot and dry, variations on this sun-drenched island range from cool Mediterranean along the coastlines to more extreme in its inland zones. Of particular note are the various microclimates of Europe's largest volcano, Mount Etna, where vineyards grow on drastically steep hillsides and varying aspects to the Ionian Sea. The more noteworthy red and white Sicilian wines that come from the volcanic soils of Mount Etna include Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio (reds) and Carricante (whites). All share a racy streak of minerality and, at their best, bear resemblance to their respective red and white Burgundies.
Nero d’Avola is the most widely planted red variety, and is great either as single varietal bottling or in blends with other indigenous varieties or even with international ones. For example, Nero d'Avola is blended with the lighter and floral, Frappato grape, to create the elegant, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, one of the more traditional and respected Sicilian wines of the island.
Grillo and Inzolia, the grapes of Marsala, are also used to produce aromatic, crisp dry Sicilian white. Pantelleria, a subtropical island belonging to the province of Sicily, specializes in Moscato di Pantelleria, made from the variety locally known as Zibibbo.