Carjcanti

Carricante is the white grape of Etna. The Catania family tried it somewhere else: on the limestone hills of the Monti Iblei, at home in Chiaramonte Gulfi. The plant material was selected from old Carricante vines on the volcano and went into Vigna Campo, about a hectare and a half at around 400 metres.

Gulfi's own pages tell the start two ways. Most date the planting to 1999. A 2010 sheet says Salvo Foti set the site up as an experimental vineyard in the mid 1990s.

The vineyard is planted densely, at 9,000 vines per hectare, on calcareous, moderately clayey soil. It is farmed organically and never irrigated.

Gulfi's pages name no vintage, and they describe the wine differently over the years. The current sheet has whole bunches pressed directly, fermentation in steel and in oak of 500 and 2,500 litres, at least a year on the lees and several months in bottle. Earlier pages give smaller barrels. The blend moves too: a 2015 page still called Carjcanti a blend of Carricante and Albanello, while later sheets say pure Carricante.

In 2014 Gulfi started picking on 18 August, after more than two months of sunshine without rain. Carricante comes in later, in September. Alessio Planeta, summing up the year for Sicily that November, spoke of few grapes but exceptional quality after a cool, dry summer.

The name is the grape's, with the house j: an early page spells the wine Caricanti, and the same letter turns up in Nerojbleo.

Etna's grape, raised off the volcano.