Terre Siciliane IGT Bianco Passobianco 2018 - Passopisciaro

Color: Intense straw yellow.
Smell: The nose expresses elegant hints of apricot and tropical fruit, floral and toasted notes of cereals, vanilla and honey.
Taste: On the palate it is fresh, warm and soft, round and very balanced. Excellent acidity finish with long length and persistence on the palate, with fruit aromas.
Food pairings: Perfect for fish and shellfish dishes, raw and tartare, white meats and aged cheeses.

Vintage 2018: It was one of the wettest in the last eight years, especially in the summer months and which therefore determined that classic tropical climate, defined by the heat and humidity.
We were forced to make many more steps to remove the leaves, first on the Chardonnay vines, always going step by step, because we did not want burns on the beans at all, but at the same time let them, after each step, that they were crossed by the wind in so as to dry quickly after each rain.
And also the bunches exposed in this way are totally reached and wrapped in propolis and clay. After a thousand efforts, it was still possible to collect and produce a large Chardonnay.

Vineyard age: 18 years.
Surface: 5 ha.
Plants per hectare: 12.300.
Altitude: 800-1.000 m a.s.l.
Yield: 48 hl/ha.
Fertilization: None.
Treatments: Sulfur powder, copper, clays, propolis, grapefruit seed extract.
Vinification: Steel tanks for about 20 days at 23 °C.
Aging: 10 months of aging in concrete barrels and large wooden barrels, 6 months of aging in bottle.
Bottling: Waning moon in July 2019.
Production: 42.300 bottles.

Passopisciaro

In 2000 Andrea Franchetti decided to restore an old farm and cellars on the slopes of Mount Etna, an active volcano in northeastern Sicily. The winery sits at about a thousand meters of altitude above the small wine town of Passopisciaro in the district of Castiglione di Sicilia, on the northern slope of the volcano. His first task was to clear and restore long-abandoned terraces of ancient vines on the northern slopes of the mountain, replanting at a density of 12,000 vines per hectare on thin lavic soil. His arrival on Etna helped to initiate the renaissance of viticulture on the mountain and an international discovery of the wines of Etna. At Passopisciaro, he focuses on the native grape Nerello Mascalese and its various expressions of terroir and altitudes through a series of crus, as well as the varieties Chardonnay, Petit Verdot, and Cesanese d’Affile. The high altitude, sun-drenched vineyards are idyllic yet a constant plume of smoke and the odd ash-filled belch present a constant reminder that Etna is indeed a volcano with attitude, given to relatively frequent lava spills. These spills devastate the landscape, yet each flow leaves a unique mineral profile, giving rise to the notion of various terroirs, here called contrade. The borders of the contrade reflect old feudal property lines, which are still mapped out on the local land registry. Franchetti respects and plays to the strengths of his chosen terroir on Etna, producing wines of remarkable complexity and individual personality. Significant temperature differences between day and night also play an important role, necessitating a longer growing period and this, in turn, contributes complexity and intensity, as do the profound mineral elements of the volcanic soils. Franchetti makes eight different wines at Passopisciaro, with six focused on the grape Nerello Mascalese. The wine Passorosso is a bright, holistic rendering of the grape that is unique and ever-present on the volcano, blending from different altitudes and terroirs. During the first several years of making wine on the volcano, Franchetti realized that once the Nerello grapes reached the cellar, they produced different wines depending on the district from which they came from; starting in 2008, he began to bottle the top sites separately, helping to usher in a cru system on Mt. Etna. These five Contrada wines — Chiappemacine, Porcaria, Guardiola, Sciaranuova, and Rampante - each come from vineyards of different ages and are each on a lava flow with different minerals, grain size, and altitudes. In 2005, Franchetti began making a striking red, to which he gave his own name Franchetti, made with the grapes Petit Verdot and Cesanese d’Affile, loaded with sweet spices, cassis and plum that are woven together with profound elegance. He produced his first white Guardiola Bianco, now Passobianco, in 2007, a 100% Chardonnay planted at 850-1,000 metres above sea level, with a fresh, mineral and aromatic profile reminiscent of the great whites of Burgundy.