Aromas of sliced apples, savory herbs, green olives and white pepper. Some stony minerality, too. Medium-bodied, layered and round-textured with vivid acidity. It is tense and persisting with a mineral nature and attractive spicy, green-herb savory undertones. Lengthy and textural. Drink or hold.

The Benanti 2021 Etna Bianco Contrada Cavaliere shows a layer of citrus at first, then bitter almond and unripe peach. The bouquet is mostly neutral in character at this young stage with a subtle, slow-moving evolution in the glass. It shows a luminous golden color with greenish highlights. The finish is very clean, ending with a pronounced mineral character. The Contrada Cavaliere is found on the southwest side of the volcano in Santa Maria di Licodia at 950 meters in elevation. You should count on some pretty aromatic evolution with this bottle in the next years to come.

This is the second edition of this exciting new white from the great Sicilian volcano. The Benanti 2018 Etna Bianco Contrada Cavaliere (with 5,300 bottles released) shows an open-knit personality with peach, preserved lemon, crushed stone and candied almond. The Contrada Cavaliere is located on the southwest side of Etna in the village of Santa Maria di Licodia, with vines at 950 meters in altitude. This is a fresh, medium-weight white with a nice mix of primary fruit and mineral definition.

Here is a new wine from the Benanti estate headquartered in Viagrande, or the side of Etna just north of Catania. Brothers Antonio and Salvino Benanti have recently revisited their holdings on Etna, selling some parcels and gaining access to fruit from other areas. The idea is to create a Benanti portfolio that represents multiple single-vineyard expressions from a larger range of vineyards located on the northern side of Etna (in Castiglione di Sicilia), the eastern flank of the volcano in Milo, and now in both the southwest and southeast quadrants of Etna. Officially unveiled just a few months ago, the 2017 Etna Bianco Contrada Cavaliere is the latest single-vineyard wine to join the portfolio. The Contrada Cavaliere is located in Santa Maria di Licodia, on the less-traveled southwest side of the volcano. Compared to Carricante from the northern side (that tends to get less rain and more diurnal temperature shifts), this wine is slightly more relaxed and horizontal in terms of its aromatic delivery. The wine offers a clean but also somewhat subdued expression of a grape that is fundamentally neutral but also extremely precise in terms of its aromatic offerings. This hot vintage feels very smooth and silky ultimately, delivering preserved lemon, apricot and tangy tropical fruit. You feel that natural structure at the back. Some 5,300 bottles were made.