Your Next Lesson: Etna Bianco

I have the good fortune to be visiting Monaci Delle Terre Nere on the slopes of Etna with my wife, sitting by the pool amidst the birds, orange blossoms and olive trees, as I read your column. We can see Etna in the clouds. Last night we enjoyed a wonderful Etna Bianco, Corneillson’s Munjabel Bianco. Bio, orange, yeasty and unfiltered. Very hard to find in the U.S., a real pleasure. Any thoughts about where to buy this in the Boston or NYC area?

I had the pleasure to taste all of them some years ago during a wine tasting from volcanic soil, including Etna bianco. In my opinion the wines from Sicily have an incredible ability to evoke sensations: their vivid colors recall the sparkle of the mediterranean sea, citrus aroma makes you dream about the colorful lemon and orange crops, mineral and zesty sensation on the palate recall the vibrant atmosphere of this shining island. I tried to pair them with spaghetti with red mullet and wild fennel, second dishes such as monkfish with pistachio, hazelnuts, capers and anchovies with zucchini blossoms. Wonderful match.

We repeated the gremolada linguine and parsley pesto clams with Benanti and Graci, both vintage 2016. We started enjoying them at a temperature of 58 F. With the Benanti the first thought was it’s definitely briny with an unique flavor profile of unripe stone fruit mostly apricot right before ripeness. I decanted the wine, it seemed more apple-y then tropical with some sort of sharpness or harshness to it. It seemed to get along better with clams than grilled shrimp (the grilled shrimp were delicious but not in love with the wine). The clams seemed to mellow it and made it more sweet and apple-y. The Graci was softer and cleaner. It seemed to infuse my palate with flavors of quince and pineapple in a very mellow way. Both wines lacked the tart fruit in the middle that I thought defined carricante. I learn this wine is made north of Mount Etna the Benanti east and the Biondi’s south east. Maybe that explains the differences.

Wine School’s NYC chapter met for a Sunday night BYOB with the Leopard’s tasty southern Italian seafood graced by the Graci and by Flatiron’s palindromic Foti swap, the 2014 I Custodi Etna Ante. Conversation eclipsed note-taking. Both wines had citrus, some chalk, some sea brine, but past that, could hardly have been more different. We drank them side-by-side, but the EA was the first poured, and it was unlike any Etna Bianco I’ve tasted: soft, complex, powdery-dry, with flavors that seemed to swirl in an intangible cloud. I, and Ali, too, I think, found it fascinating. It paired best with the blandest bites on the table: lovely breadsticks in oil; an arancini amusé with peas and a hint of veal; a lemony sautéed spinach side (made the wine nicely sweet); each of these dishes overpowered by the G. I could see the EA as an aperitif. It faded, though, next to the bolder, far more minerally G, which was the table favorite: jaunty, self-assured and outgoing. The G paired best with the foods we were there for. A crudo of raw branzino, fennel and orange was instructive. I’d seen the EA described as a good pairing for raw fish. Not so for this dish, which Ali pointed out was too fishy and strong for the wine. The G stood up effortlessly. Pairing of the night for me was the always-delicious “busiate Trapanese,” a shellfish pasta ragout in a light, mildly spicy tomato sauce. The G’s minerally citrus core lit up the seafood from within, it seemed, and handled its spice with ease.

I found myself in a wrestling match with the 16 Benanti, which we drank alone at first then paired with fromage de chèvre du Ardèche and then a roasted veggie pizza. After the first two wines (Graci and delle Terre Nere) which were well received, I found the Benanti ungenerous of fruit, tight and a bit harsh with an smoky acidity of the not pleasant type. Once reaching room temp, some sweetness appeared but not enough to counter the mineral/saline/ash-like aspects, the food we paired had little influence as the intense acidity overpowered everything. Maybe, this not being scientific in any way, I should have not brought it on my vacation here in the Ardèche, as I have been wanting to dig into the local wines but who knows. Mr. Baron seems to have had a similar experience but with the benefit of having had other vintages, I'll lay down the other bottle for a while and revisit later.

Coincidentally bought a 2016 Etna Bianco yesterday, from producer Palmento Costanza for $20. Tasting herbal notes like mint, thyme and a touch of salinity, fresh tasting, savory, a wonderful more complex contrast to puckerish Italian whites like Gavi di Gavi. I’ll be buying more Etna Bianco!

With the Benati, you could definitely sense the proximity to the sea with salinity and high acidity quite pronounced. We found it savory and round with a hint of lime and a certain tannin grip. When served with Hamichi Crudo with pickled jalapeno and yuzu vinaigrette, it made a great mix. It softened the wine and sweetened out the vinaigrette. It was our favorite wine and food pairing for quite awhile. The Graci showed Mediterranean herb, minerality with a hint of honey. It was round, full bodied, and offered tangy acidity. With food (a banana leafed seabass), it was overpowered. This wine was the group’s favorite although we did not find a pairing that worked. The Salvo Foti showed the usual savoriness and minerality with a slightly nutty nose. It offered a nice lemon lime fruit and was quite crisp. It was paired with a king crab nigiri which did not work. I noticed a slight resemblance to a Chabis but was out-voted for the favorite wine. These wines were outstanding and unique. Unlike what I expected, they did not resemble a Vermentino which was the other white I was considering. George Erdle – Harper’s Fine Dining – Charlotte, NC

Hello Eric, I truly enjoy Wine School! Thanks to you I rediscovered godello. I eat a lot of Asian flavors and decided to put carricante with them. As you probably have heard, many many times, some of your recommendations just don’t arrive in Oregon. So I did find Tenuta delle Terre Nere-hooray! On opening the bottle, I enjoyed the fragrance of the variety. Delicious, enticing ! However, as a predinner sip, the fragrance didn’t really continue. But, it was absolutely delicious with Japanese sweet potatoes, Portland Jorinji white miso and a bit of butter. Who would have guessed... Thank you for wine school! Cheers, Margaret in Mc Minnville

Graci 2016: Like others discovered, a marked difference in profile from fridge to room temp, I preferred it on the warmer side as it was full, rich and still holding on to a saline grip along the way and was a real lesson in tropical fruits. We drank it without food on an unusually warm April evening here in the Parisian suburbs and really enjoyed it alone. We then tried to paired it with asparagus risotto but it went down so well it was gone before we knew it! We opened the 2013 Tenuta delle Terre Nere, my wife’s birthday meal (risotto) is usually a Sancerre pairing but the Terre Nere was a solid stand in. A bit more rustic than the Graci and it also changed personalities as it warmed (don’t we all?) but the underlying minerality remained a constant lead to the creamy risotto, a delightful pairing.

We enjoyed the I Vigneri di Salvo Foti Etna Bianco Aurora 2016 with Florence Fabricant’s Greek Fishermen’s Stew https://tinyurl.com/ybofju6q and freshly shucked Chesapeake Bay Oysters as antipasti. The wine seemed to me similar to Outis having this mysterious soft and tart fruit note. I think now it is a characteristic of carricante. I was tasting less citrus and salinity with this wine. First I thought the wine was better with the stew. That stew was very flavorful. But with the raw oysters the tart fruit flavor (somewhere between white currant, peach and rhubarb) seemed to shift towards a ripe tart harvest apple flavor with hints of vanilla. That tart fruit element seems to increase as the wine is exposed to air. I wonder if that is what makes this wine savory.

Went back Weds. night for a Benanti repeat. After liking it so much in the past (older bottles), and not much at all a few weeks ago (2-y-o ’16, undecanted and cool), it deserved another shot, this time with 4-hours’ air and basically at room temp. Definitely an improvement. Dinner was Ms. Clark’s roast broccoli rabe tinyurl.com/y9xdek25 (a favorite) with added spicy bread crumbs tinyurl.com/y8rel4z7 and the aforementioned Ms. C’s mackerel tinyurl.com/yae7zsrr , as Ferguson enjoyed. As did she, I found the B a lovely accompaniment to the salty olives, and pretty spectacular with a spooned-on preserved lemon garnish: sweet, sour, salty and lemony yum. Also liked how the wine turned sweet with the bitter vegetable and how it picked up on the buttery bread crumbs (does it see some oak?). But… while the B this time showed much more flavor than before, it’s now been eclipsed by the extraordinary Graci tasted in between. Good next to great. I do wonder how much difference (certainly not all! The G is special) is due to the catarratto present in the G and not in the all-carricante B? The Terre Nere, which I’ve liked a lot, has a good % of catarratto, as does another inexpensive Etna Bianco, one Eric doesn’t mention, the Destro Terre Siciliane Nausìca, a very favorite. I suspect the cataratto adds a richness that I now miss in the B. Serving note: the B paired best at room temp; at a touch below, it had a waxy, lanolin sleekness that I liked on its own, but less with the food.

Tried the Graci. As others have noted, out of the fridge and on its own it was light and refreshing but not very remarkable. However, it was a harmonious companion to the food, stuffed calamari. It played that role when a wine is an equal to the meal and the two are having a conversation. I enjoyed it even more post-dinner, drinking the last glass of it when it had reached almost room temperature. It seemed to open up and reveal riper fruit and a pleasant saltiness.

Had the Graci Saturday night with my go-to roast broccoli and the same shrimp and gremolada that Martin had last week. And had pretty much the same impression of it, the wine, as VSB had the week before. Just lovely. This is one of those wines that wraps the whole meal in goodness. More dinner “companion,” than mere pairing. (As a pairing, it seemed to love the food’s citrus even more, surprisingly to me, than its sea.) On serving: The wine was 45 minutes out of the fridge when we first sat down. As many have noted, it didn’t fully hit its stride for maybe another 15 minutes on, when, at about one half a hair below room temp, its somewhat generic tropical fruit gave way to sea shore and more. I also decanted half the bottle and was glad of it. Air brought out a richness, texture, and, as Eric asked, a “savoriness” that I did not get from the just-poured. The decanted seemed somehow more “complete.” This wine continues to remind me of a sunnier version of white Burg. Partly in the way it goes from steely to generous as it warms. Cool, there was a hint of Chablis-like almost-fizz; at room temp I got VSB’s yeastiness, inviting and generous. And partly in the way its flavors flicker teasingly between white fruit and citrus. There’s a lot of personality in this wine. Elegant and casual. I pictured James Bond on the beach, shoes off and pants getting wave-soaked, an apple in his hand. Or was that a Sicilian blood orange?

We bought one of the three packs from Flatiron so I Custodi instead of I Vigneri di Salvo Foti. We served them with a variety of Sicilian dishes over several nights, Melissa Clark's Mackerel with lemon oil, Martha Rose Shulman's Sicilian Cauliflower and David Tanis's eggplant caponata and pasta with anchovies. The wines went well with the saltiness of olives, capers and anchovies and the brightness of lemons. Yes you could taste the sea but it was a warm Mediterranean and not the crisp Atlantic. Minerality is there but Mt. Etna is different from chalky cliffs. The wines reminded me a bit of muscadet but not as crisp on the tongue. They also reminded me of assyrtiko, a wine I had enjoyed in a previous wine school lesson.

Keep it simple. A mineraly white wine pairs perfectly with raw oysters... Cannot wait to try this combo. Have been searching for one since my cousin served rather mediocre oysters with a mineral white -- a superb combo of wine and food -- one of very few that found utterly convincing.. The search is on.

We enjoyed Biondi’s Outis 2016 and with Linguine with Gremolada and Grilled Shrimp (Carolina) tinyurl.com/y9flct76 (thanks Dan for the recommendation) and Hard-Shell Clams (Chesapeake) with Parsley Pesto https://tinyurl.com/y6wv8owu as Antipasti or side dish. Smelling the glass I first thought of a sea breeze. The Linguine gave me a similar impression: Springtime at the ocean. The wine was apple-y on one side, citrusy on the other, there was a background of salinity, and in the middle there was something velvety, mysterious, and berry-like shifting between white currant and rhubarb. The wine was clean, crisp, refreshingly tart, a perfect companion for this fresh and local seafood. This was not a boring wine! We were fascinated. Then we opened the Chianta 2015. To me it first seemed apple and spicy, somewhat like nutmeg. It developed towards apple-y, citrusy, spicy, and floral with a hint of bitterness. We debated how this single vineyard wine had even more personality and character.

Going back to the toe in May and will cross the strait and visit Benanti. You are so right, the Pietra Marina is a must if you can find it. Me, I will return home with 12+ bottles for those special occasions... I find carricante to be great on the palate and it's mineral qualities bring out the best in a lobster roll. Cheers!

I was able to find a bottle of 2016 Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Bianco. I was curious about these wines as I have never tried the white wines from this area. I agree with some of the other comments in that it is difficult to describe. Both the nose and the flavors seem to be understated and it is not that interesting to drink by itself. But it did go well with a vegetable soup that we prepared. There It is a fresh, clean finish to it with with some waxy fruit and some savory notes as well. I would say it reminds me somewhat of a muscadet.

As with Aaron McCincy, all I could find in Northern Kentucky was the '15 Tenuta della Terre Nera, but it was fine. Even when first opened cold, the floral/tropical fruit nose came through. Then, as Mr. Asimov said, it tasted different than any other white wine I'd had. Served it with pan-fried haddock, grilled asparagus, and shell pasta with Parmigiano-Reggiano and whatever else Trader Joe's put in them. The wine tasted well and set off each of these items. With a Fred Hersch CD on, it was a delightful meal. But I'm still hard-pressed to find good descriptors for the flavor of the wine, maybe because it seemed so much of a whole.

Just paired a '16 Murgo (Skurnik) with a home-cooked dinner of baked hake marinated in sesame oil, shoyu, mirin, scallion, garlic, and toasted sesame seeds (& a squeeze of lemon), followed by a salad course of butterhead lettuce, umeboshi-pickled red onion, cucumber, and sautéed maitake mushroom. We concluded the meal with some Maggie's Round cheese from Cricket Creek of Western MA. While pre-heating our tiny oven, we picked up a fully chilled bottle at our nearby independent wine retailer, and couldn't agree more with Mr. Asimov: after a half-hour at room temperature, the wine grew exponentially in mouth-feel and floral aroma. I found that the medium acidity (although my partner argues that the acidity is quite frisky and pronounced) was well balanced with the slightly chalky minerality. The finish was clean yet lingering, which only further assisted with the next chopstick-full of dinner. Looking forward to hearing how others enjoyed their Etna Bianco!

Good Morning: Etna Bianco might prove more versatile than you would suspect after reading the column. Tried it again last night with home made vegetarian fried rice and it worked very well. Completely agree that the wine should not be served too cold; try taking it out of the refrigerator 45-60 minutes before serving, or not chilling it all, just store it in a cool dark place.

Good Evening: Any month featuring a grape I've never tried before automatically becomes a success, and this month's choice ranks among the best. Found the 2016 Graci, and served it with roast chicken with lots of herbs, rice and raw celery. Music: '66 - '76 by Hugh Masekela. Color: pale yellow. Nose: pear, orange peel, perfume, floral. Taste: juicy mouth feel, long finish, mouth filling. Melon, pear, peach, floral, orange, orange peel, medium acidity, green apple, keeps improving as it approaches room temperature. Yeasty notes appeared when it reached room temps. All of the flavors worked in harmony with each other and with the chicken and celery; the foods' herbal qualities complimented the wine. Can age up to 5 years. Worth buying a few bottles. The music completed a fun evening. Pity the weather was so cold and windy; wine, food and music would have felt even more enjoyable eating on the fire escape overlooking Haight Street.

These wines always have been difficult to locate in stock at retail in the U.S. And thus 'tis a pity that in a matter of a few days, this brief article, disseminated to tens of thousands, will render them virtually impossible to find and purchase until the stampede has passed and the buzz has worn off.

We have a lot of Tenuta della Terre Nera on the retail shelves here in Cincinnati. It used to be relatively easy to find Graci too, but it seems the recent popularity of Etna wines means the restaurants have picked up the small quantities we get here. Had the Tenuta della Terre Nera's 2015 Etna Bianco for Easter dinner and unfortunately found it over the hill. I'm guessing it may have been an off bottle - poor storage maybe - as it was missing both fruit and minerality, but did not appear to be corked.

Too young? Poor vintage? I’ve had, and loved, the Benanti twice before. Both were 2011s and both were 5-year-olds when I had them. Saturday night’s 16 was a major let-down. I got a boatload of fresh, clean tropical fruit from it, and as it warmed, some fresh apple (back to that in a minute). The minerality I expected was barely there; more “backbone” than overt flavor. And with conscious effort, I got some brininess, but faint. The 11s had struck me as “complex, ashy, stony, grapefruity, pineappley, white-fruity, minty, acidic.” I’d call the 16 “fruity, acidic, fresh.” Paired it with a sun-dried tomato and almond pesto tinyurl.com/yc9jjb6n and with a big salad of arugula, mushrooms, tasty Lombardy goat cheese and walnuts tinyurl.com/ybdtkhy8 . Both had been terrific on other nights with other EBs (Calabretta and the dark appley Gulfi, 3- and 5-y-o). With the 2-y-o B, not so much. There was a SvBl-like, tart-fruity freshness that I might have enjoyed more in August than in March. Better suited to the salad than the pasta. Except… the wine does open in the glass, turning more appley, briny and a bit more complex as it warms. I’d read a few comparisons of EBs and white Burg and I did get that enigmatic citrus-apple dichotomy last night (not as deliciously as with the 11s, though). Enjoyed the 16 most as it neared room temp. Maybe better in a couple years? And yaknow what else was a let-down in the 2016? The respectably bowdlerized label. Here’s the old: tinyurl.com/yb7zltfu .