Carricante wine guide
Carricante is the Sicilian protagonist of the Etna white DOC wines, a real liquid treasure that is slowly but steadily growing in terms of average quality, typicality and sales success. Carricante is a superb, haughty wine, rich in hints of citrus and Mediterranean scrub. It opens in a thousand elegant scents, focuses on finesse and elegance, has a fabulous sapid structure, is wide, points very high, so much so that very trivially it is compared to Riesling either for the innate elegance or for the particularity of the perfumes.
In reality, we do not make comparisons, Carricante is a splendid and subtle wine and certainly has very mineral aromas, but even just approaching it with Riesling is a sterile exercise. It is much more alcoholic, dense and structured than its German cousin, but above all, it manages to bottle all the charm of the sun, sea and land of Sicily. Riesling is perhaps the king of white wines and has a history and care behind it for centuries, Carricante has always been produced in blend with Catarratto and its potential has only been understood in recent years.
And it is good because Carricante is one of the best Italian white wines, but as usual in Italy, when we have a treasure we immediately try to burn it and destroy it following grim commercial logic that aims for small gains immediately, but which castrate the future. It has never been highly valued, so much so that the name itself derives from one of its characteristics, in fact in Sicilian dialect it means to load, in the sense that it is a vine that gives very generous yields to load boxes and baskets to no end.
And this is the first problem: prune and keep yields low, focus on quality, clonal selection, the best crus and enhance them with pure Etna DOC and use the less valuable grapes blended with Catarratto to make excellent white wines, but certainly not masterpieces. It takes courage, but many have taken this path and it will surely lead to incredible success, just persevere.
Production area
Once it was widespread throughout Sicily, it was the white wine that is produced like a mule, without stopping, clusters in cascades. Today, fortunately, it is grown only in its elective area, its cradle, the slopes of the Etna volcano, where it is protected by a DOC, established in 1968. In Etna Bianco, DOC Carricante must be present at least at 60% with 40 % of Catarratto, while in Etna Bianco Superiore DOC the percentage of Carricante rises to 80% and Catarratto drops to 20%.
History of the Carricante grape
Like many Sicilian vines of which there is no precise information, but which have now become autochthonous, because they have been cultivated for millennia, also for Carricante it tends to be of Greek origin. It would have arrived in Catania with the first Greek colonists, who arrived in what was the first province colonized by the Greeks in 729 BC, but as always, these are all hypotheses. What is certain is that Carricante finds on the slopes of the Etna volcano a unique terroir perfect for enhancing its characteristics, thanks to the mineral soils of basalt and porphyry, excellent for giving further flavor to the final wine.
Organoleptic characteristics of Carricante wine
The nose is a whirlwind of yellow fruit, flowers, honey, licorice, flint, a thousand scents of the sea, minerals, Mediterranean scrub and aromatic herbs. The variety is incredible, but don’t think about the aromatic power of aromatic wine, on the contrary, it is a subtle and measured wine, precise, with intensity, but never too marked.
What does Carricante taste like?
On the palate, it is salty, very structured, alcoholic, but supported by an electrifying acid shoulder. It is a complex wine full of layers and veils to be discovered, but it never gives up on rhythm, on mineral propulsion. It has a lot of pulp and stellar drinkability, the finish is of Mediterranean scrub, with almost resinous returns, licorice, fennel, rocks and salt.
Carricante-Etna Bianco food pairings
We are talking about a colossal white wine, very savory and equally acidic, so combine it with fish dishes, legumes, white meats, duck, fish skewers, swordfish, artichoke lasagna, all Thai dishes that are not too spicy, risottos, cheeses cured or creamy and of course chicken curry.