Etna Bianco Superiore Pietra Marina

From the first day, Giuseppe Benanti wanted to prove what Carricante from Milo could do. Pietra Marina is that argument in a bottle: after two experimental harvests, 1990 was the first vintage the estate bottled, and this white led that first release together with Rovittello. The name joins stone and sea, the volcano and the breeze that comes up to it off the water.

The fruit comes from Contrada Rinazzo, in the commune of Milo on the eastern slope of Etna, at about 800 metres and facing the sea. The soil is sandy and volcanic, rich in minerals. The vines, some up to 90 years old, are trained as traditional alberello against chestnut stakes on small terraces held up by dry-stone walls, planted at 8,000 to 9,000 vines per hectare. Milo matters here: under the Etna DOC rules, Bianco Superiore can come only from this one commune, with at least 80 percent Carricante.

The cellar work is patient rather than showy. The grapes are picked by hand in the second half of October and pressed whole and gently. Fermentation runs about twelve days in steel with a yeast of the estate's own, selected after long experimentation. Benanti spent five years on its indigenous-yeast research and came out of it in 2010 with four patented strains. The wine then rests on its fine lees in steel for about 30 months, stirred often, and spends at least another year in bottle before it leaves.

The 2019 was a numbered release of 10,056 bottles.