High on the black volcanic slopes of Mount Etna, Carricante makes one of southern Italy's most thrilling white wines — taut, mineral and searingly fresh, all green apple, lemon and a smoky, aniseed-and-stone volcanic character. The altitude and the active volcano's ash give it an acidity and tension unheard of at Sicily's latitude.
Grown for centuries on Etna's terraces, often as ungrafted centenarian vines in the phylloxera-free volcanic sand, it can age for a decade or more into something almost Riesling-like. As the Etna revolution has swept the wine world, Carricante has emerged as one of Italy's great white grapes.