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