2020 Contrada Bianco PC

Baked apples and pears, laced with white flowers, are complemented by hints of raw almond as the 2020 Bianco Contrada Passochianche (PC) blossoms in the glass. It’s elegant and silky in feel, with ripe melon and inner florals that cascade across the palate, as a core of minerality and hints of spice reveal themselves toward the close. The 2020 tapers off incredibly long with a bitter twang, as hints of young peach and inner herbal tones fade. The Passochianche is just a baby today, yet it’s packed full of potential. The balance here is unreal. It hails from high-elevation vines (1,000 meters) planted in deep, sandy volcanic soils. The wine spends thirty-six hours macerating on the skins, and then refines for seventeen months in neutral fifteen-hectoliter barrels.

A single parcel chardonnay from Contrada Guardiola that delivers a poised and focused white with depth and intensity. Crushed lime and mineral. Some honeysuckle.

The nose of this Passopisciaro Sicilian cru Chardonnay impresses immediately with a sophisticated integration of savory notes against solid but reserved fruit, moving from toasted wood and rain-soaked pavement to lemon, quince and kumquat. Green and yellow apple seem to be almost baked into a pie on the palate, with lychee and other tropical flavors that may have already peeked out on the nose but are now less timid alongside pineapple and star fruit. A squeeze of acid down the middle and a bitter nuttiness at the finish tie everything together in a neat package.