Carricante is the white grape of Etna, grown on the volcanic slopes of eastern Sicily, and it makes wines that taste of the mountain as much as the fruit. Tenuta Terre Darrigo farms it on those slopes and bottles it as Etna Bianco DOC, a wine that is dry, driven and unmistakably stony.
- Carricante, the defining white grape of Etna.
- Etna Bianco DOC, Sicily's volcanic appellation.
- 2022 vintage, from the slopes of an active volcano.
- 13.5% ABV, medium body, high acidity.
- Dry, low tannin, 750ml.
How it is made
Etna Bianco DOC rules require Carricante to make up at least 60% of the blend, with the remainder usually filled by other local white grapes. The vineyards sit high on the volcano's slopes, where the soils are volcanic ash and lava sand and the swing between day and night temperatures is wide. That combination slows ripening and holds on to acidity, which is why Carricante keeps its edge even in a warm Sicilian year.
How it tastes
Green apple and citrus come first, then flint and a wet-stone mineral note that runs through the middle. There is a saline thread on the finish, the kind that shows up in whites grown close to the sea or on volcanic ground. Medium in body but clear and vivid, with high acidity keeping everything tight rather than soft.
Good to know
Carricante is one of Italy's oldest white varieties and was once planted almost nowhere else. Etna Bianco was granted DOC status in 2000, and the vineyards that supply it sit on terraces cut into the volcano's lower slopes, some of them at well over 800 metres. The grape's name is sometimes read as "carica cento", meaning a hundred bunches, a nod to how generously it can crop.
Where it comes from
Etna is Europe's tallest active volcano, and the wine zone wraps around its northern and eastern flanks in the province of Catania. The appellation covers a patchwork of small contrade, each with its own lava flow and soil age, which is why Etna wines from neighbouring parcels can taste so different from one another.
