by Umberto Gambino
There’s a moment, during a tasting on Etna, when you stop thinking about the wine and start thinking about the place. It’s not a metaphor: it’s what really happens when you have a Carricante from 800 meters in your glass, with its aromas of wet stone, almost salty citrus, and flowers that seem to have grown on cooled lava. The volcano isn’t a backdrop: it’s an ingredient.
During my last Sicily en primeur, I tasted several Etna white wines, including Etna Bianco DOC, IGT, and even several Metodo Classico wines, exploring different districts and styles with the same curiosity that one feels exploring an unfamiliar map. The picture that emerges is of a region that has found its voice—and has no intention of diminishing it. Here are the 20 top wines tasted, according to WineReporter.
The historic benchmark remains Benanti’s Pietra Marina : a pure Carricante from Milo, on the eastern slopes, at an altitude of 800 meters. The 2020 vintage is fresh, savory, and smooth, with that aniseed finish that only great white wines can deliver. Unsurpassed finesse, as always. At the table, it calls for something equally complex: Livorno-style red mullet or sweet and sour swordfish.
The best surprise, however, comes from the Trainara 2024 by Generazione Alessandro : fresh white fruit of pear and peach, light spice, a soft and elegant palate, lively acidity, and persistent freshness. Modern without betraying its Etna identity. The pairing is obvious: linguine with mullet bottarga .
Elegance with a capital E comes from two local labels. The Pietradolce Archineri 2024—100 % Carricante from centuries-old vines in Milo—is a triumph of citrus, flowers, and almond, with an intense, savory, and vibrant palate: stewed cuttlefish with peas , without too much thought. The same register for the San Lorenzo 2024 from Girolamo Russo : smoky, spicy, peppery, and rosemary, with a fresh, savory palate that’s a serious drink. It demands serious food— grilled red tuna with capers and olives .
Graci’s 2024 Muganazzi , on the other hand, exudes muscle and character : ginger, sulfurous notes, white flowers, and spices, a lively, full-bodied, and very savory flavor. “Lots of muscle,” I wrote in my notebook, and I stand by it. The dish that does it justice is pasta with sardines, Palermo-style : they instantly connect.
The Cottanera chapter deserves a separate note: the 2021 Etna Bianco Contrada Cottanera is bright, rounded, and vibrant: words usually used for red wines. Broom-like, smoky, with an intense and savory palate and an almond finish. It truly finds its most enveloping expression with a seafood and saffron risotto .
The 2024 Alberelli di Giodo Carricante is as vibrant as a volcanic wine should be: citrus, lime, white peach, jasmine, and a mineral, saline finish. Vertical and precise. It calls for oysters or raw sea urchins. Period.
A large and far from banal group moves on equally convincing levels. The 2024 Fumante from Camporè —that subtle smoky vein is already in the name—goes with an octopus salad with potatoes and lemon. The 2022 Isolano from Donnafugata , citrusy and mineral with its slight bitterness, finds the ideal counterbalance in the mixed fried fish . The 2024 Feudo from Girolamo Russo , full-bodied and dynamic with its exotic notes of mango and ginger, pairs with raw red prawns from Mazara with citrus . Gambino’s 2024 Tifeo, more floral than fruity but lively and concentrated, with an intense and very savory palate that gradually expands, finds its ideal pairing in fried calamari with lemon: freshness against freshness. The 2024 Taccione from Planeta , elegant aromas and a progressive sip, calls for creamed cod . The 2021 Imbris from I Custodi delle Vigne dell’Etna , floral and peppery, goes with herb-marinated mackerel . The 2023 Sciaranuova from Tasca d’Almerita , large and almost honeyed, deserves a Trapani-style fish couscous . Palmento Costanzo’s 2023 Contrada Santo Spirito , spicy with a coffee finish, pairs very well with Ischia-style rabbit with olives and capers .
Two wines deserve special mention. 
The Musmeci Bianco 2023 from Tenuta di Fessina, elegant and profound, is a great wine that demands a great shellfish: a Catalan-style lobster . The Vico Bianco 2021 from Tenute Bosco “seems like a Nordic white, excellent, aromatic, very fragrant”: with a raw sea bass, oil, and sea salt , it is minimalism against minimalism. And then there’s Maugeri’s 2024 Fronte Mare—Etna Bianco Superiore Contrada Volpare—which, even in its name, reveals its identity: mixed volcanic, alluvial, clay, and tuff soils on the seaward slope. Fresh, mineral notes, hints of hydrocarbons, and hints of exotic fruit; on the palate, it’s clean, linear, very savory, and long. A wine built to last—the producer aims for a longevity of over ten years—that pairs effortlessly with salt-baked fish, where the simplicity of the dish allows the complexity of the wine to speak for itself.
Terra Costantino’s Praino 2023 boasts a beautiful story: young 2018 vines on iron-rich lava soils in Milo, a project by winemaker Luca D’Attoma with the Costantino family. It opens delicately with floral and white fruit, then becomes enveloping on the palate, with a long and measured cedar finish. A mussel and clam soup rounds out the wine: marine flavor and volcanic minerality, Etna and the sea together.
Finish with bubbles. The Sosta Tre Santi from Tenute Nicosia.
— 100% Carricante, 60 months on the lees, disgorged in 2025 — is proof that Etna can also aspire to the third dimension. Fine and persistent perlage, balsamic aromas of almond, hazelnut, acacia honey, bread crust, a hint of pineapple. The palate is the best part: full-bodied, enveloping, savory, fresh. A Metodo Classico (the Etna-based wine made from 100% Carricante) that deserves DOC status as soon as possible. And those who discovered it in the field already know the pairing: chickpea panelle . Territory responds to territory.
Twenty years ago, white Etna was a curiosity. Today, it’s a certainty. And the best part is, it still feels like it’s just getting started.
On my recent tour of Etna (recounted in three separate blogs on wineinsights I expected to be impressed with the reds, but it was the Carricante that really blew me away. Wines both exuberant and yet profound, inviting contemplation beyond simple enjoyment; “aromas of wet stone, almost salty citrus, and flowers that seem to have grown on cooled lava” your opening description a perfect summation.
At this time, wines from Caricante grapes are the most representative of Etna viticulture.