Palmento Costanzo Contrada Cavaliere Etna Bianco

The Wine

This delicious white wine is 100% Carricante from old vines growing in the Contrada Cavaliere sub-zone in Santa Maria di Licodia. This Contrada is on the southern side of Etna, at nearly 3000 feet of elevation. Etna's best white wines grow on the south side, the best reds on the north. Fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel tanks and aged in stainless steel vats and tonneaux for 8 months.

Intense and rich, with an ample bouquet of orange blossom, citrus and tropical fruits, complicated by notes of oregano and flint. Finishes with a savory note of iodine and crushed stones.

The Winery

This wine comes to us from the Mother-Daughter team of Valeria and Serena Costanzo and their breath-taking, terraced vineyards carved into Mt Etna's volcanic soils. The grapes were grown on their Estate vineyard in Contrada Cavaliere (one of Etna's ~100 Contradas - see map - which are boundaries defined for governmental purposes but also used in describing a vineyard's location. Their Contrada is within in the larger region of Passopisciaro (literally, 'walk along the lava flow), on the northern side of the Etna volcano. 

It's difficult to describe how dominant a figure Mt Etna is for local winemakers. They often refer to the active volcano with traditional female pronouns - she/her - or simply as "Volcano", as if that were its name. You might hear them say "I hope to harvest next week, if she'll allow", or "...depending on Volcano".

This wine ticks all the boxes for natural wines, but without leading with that glass chin among traditional wine lovers, who will find a wine very much to their liking here. All the energy of Volcano lurks beneath this cork!