2018 Passobianco

A pure expression of Chardonnay, the Passopisciaro Vini Franchetti 2018 Passobianco is a generous wine with lots of honey, dried apricot and apple baked in butter. Ultimately, this expression from the volcanic soils of Etna stands apart from other great renditions of this versatile grape thanks to those dusty or ashy mineral notes as well as those slightly exotic hints of saffron and ground cumin. It is aged in oak casks and cement for 10 months. The wine's appearance is golden and bright, and the palate carries generous fruit weight and concentrated flavors. Grapes come from high-density vineyards at an impressive 850 to 1,000 meters in elevation from the terraces of Contrada Guardiola and Monte Dolce. Some 40,000 bottles were made. Very few people know more about making fine Italian wine than Andrea Franchetti, who farms in Tuscany but was courageously among the first to believe in and invest in the potential of Etna. Just recently, I awarded Andrea's Tenuta di Trinoro 2019 Tenuta di Trinoto a perfect 100-point score. That wine is made far off the beaten track in Sarteano in southern Tuscany. Now completing his 19th harvest on Etna, Franchetti and his team have a deep understanding of the volcanic soils and the sometimes dramatic weather conditions at these high altitudes. This set of new releases includes a new wine. It is a Chardonnay-based white from the Contrada PC (Passochianche) with vines between 870 and 950 meters in elevation planted in steep, labor-intensive terraces. This inaugural release shows well in the rainy 2018 vintage, as Chardonnay is often harvested early. But the 2018 reds presented here all taste thinner and shorter compared to recent past vintages. This is a common trait across the 2018 Etna reds that experienced humidity, rain and thick fog banks. If you were to taste Franchetti's single-vineyard wines in order of increasing vineyard elevation, from lowest to highest parcel in meters above sea level, they would be Contrada C (550 meters), Contrada P (650 meters), Contrada G (800 meters), Contrada S (850 meters) and Contrada R (1,000 meters).

100% Chardonnay from an 18-year-old vineyard at between 800 and 1,000 m above sea level planted at a density of 12,300 vines/ha. Fermented in stainless steel and aged for 10 months in concrete tanks and large oak casks followed by six months in bottle. Deep straw yellow. Savoury and minerally and a little iodine, with more than a peppery tingle on the nose, like smelling lava, but it might be my imagination now running away with me. Certainly intriguing. Opens up very slowly so I would have no qualms about decanting this. Garden herbs. Same slowness on the palate. More orange than lemon and with a long bitter, salty sensation. Stones and orange fruit on the finish. Captivating.

A pure expression of Chardonnay, the Passopisciaro Vini Franchetti 2018 Passobianco is a generous wine with lots of honey, dried apricot and apple baked in butter. Ultimately, this expression from the volcanic soils of Etna stands apart from other great renditions of this versatile grape thanks to those dusty or ashy mineral notes as well as those slightly exotic hints of saffron and ground cumin. It is aged in oak casks and cement for 10 months. The wine's appearance is golden and bright, and the palate carries generous fruit weight and concentrated flavors. Grapes come from high-density vineyards at an impressive 850 to 1,000 meters in elevation from the terraces of Contrada Guardiola and Monte Dolce.