Wine Bottles on Shelf

Victoria Moore - The Telegraph - Winemaking talent erupts under Mount Etna

Laura on 28 Jun 2013

June 21st 2013

Planeta, Carricante 2011

"As for whites, the name you need to know is carricante. The closest grape I can think of to it is another one grown on volcanic soil, the assyrtiko of Santorini. Carricante has some of the spike of a sauvignon or a cortese but none of their tendency to be attention-seeking: it’s all tense with arid vigour. And it picks up a smoky, pumicey minerality, which sounds unpleasant but in a wine is pleasing.

Planeta’s carricante is a good wine to try to taste this. The 2012 vintage is called “Eruzione 1614” because the eruption of that year stopped just short of the vineyards in which these grapes are grown, but it’s the 2011 that’s being sold at the moment here.

There is a mystical feel to Etna. “It has crazy energies, very strange energies,” says Planeta’s Patricia Toth, who drove me up there. “You feel this is the most refreshing place you’ve ever been if you go up and down in one day. Then you sleep here and it feels cold, very dark, heavy…” I only feel good things about its wines."