Tenute Bosco, Etna Bianco (Sicily, Italy) 2022

 This is a delicious rendering of Carricante from the slopes of Mount Etna, with very precise balance of ripe but delicate fruit and bright acidity that never seem sour even though it is relentlessly refreshing.  The fruit notes are definitely more reminiscent of citrus than any other basic family, but a suggestion of tart, dried apricot is also evident, and other suggestions are likely to emerge as this develops with bottle age.  Salty mineral notes are already in evidence, and these will also rise in prominence as the wine benefits from time in bottle.  Reds from Etna remain more popular than the whites in worldwide terms, but my experience indicates that Carricante is every bit as superb a variety as Nerello Mascalese (the leading red variety on Etna), and that the whites show the volcanic minerality of Etna’s remarkable terroir even more vividly than the reds.  One last tip for those who don’t know these well yet:  Sicily as a whole was a joke in Italian wine 25 years ago, whereas now the wines of Etna are now the darlings of the overwhelming majority of critical observers across the country.