Cortese Nostru Carricante

Rediscovering precious grape varieties from Sicily’s rich past. With a big personality and distinctive minerality this is a memorable white.

The Cortese story is fascinating.  A sprawling vineyard in the Ragusa region of Southern Sicily, it was previously owned by the locally infamous matriarch Giovanna Cortese.  As Signora Cotrese reached an age where she was no longer able to manage the land anymore, she decided to sell to Italian wine legend Stefano Girelli in 2016 who immediately set about transforming it. While modernising in some ways, he decided to keep all the very old vines of unusual varietals and even began to use ancient wine-making techniques such as fermentation in terracotta.  the result is a unique and interesting range of artisanal wines that are truly representative of the Terre Siciliane.

Carricante, usually synonymous with the white wines of Mount Etna.  Winemaker Stafano Girelli thinks it also works further south on the island, where it’s grown at an altitude of around 400 metres, and he’s right.

This organic dry white wine has pretty aromatics of peach, apricot, stewed apple, citrus and blossom.  There’s a brisk acidity on the palate, with fresh notes of green apple and yellow citrus.  A clean and mineral style, made with precision.