Masseria del Pino Caravan Petrol Etna Bianco 2019
Masseria del Pino Caravan Petrol Etna Bianco 2019
Masseria del Pino Caravan Petrol Etna Bianco 2019
Cesare Fulvio and Federica Turillo humbly tend to their two hectares of 120-year-old vines high on the volcano’s northern face. They craft wines with their bare hands—and feet!—that are worlds removed from the heavy investment, modern technology, and mass marketing that is reshaping the Etnean landscape.
Consider their Carricante-based white: lightly skin-macerated, it was pressed manually and aged in a solitary chestnut cask before an unfiltered, unsulfured bottling. Charming, fresh, and textured, with suggestions of wildflowers, saffron, lemon, and nuts, this is Etna in all its raw glory. - KLWM
Field blend: Carricante, Catarratto, Minella, Pizzutella
Vines: 120 year-old vines in volcanic soils from one 1.7 ha total vineyard
• Wines bottled unfined and unfiltered
• Hand harvested, grapes sorted in the vineyard
Vino Bianco “Caravan Petrol”:• Grapes are lightly crushed without destemming
• Skin maceration for a day and a half, then grapes are pressed in a vertical basket press
• Fermented and aged in a 500-L chestnut barrel for 9 months
• Aged 2 months in bottle before release
• No added sulfur
• “Caravan Petrol” is a tongue-in-cheek name for the phenomenon that Federica and Cesare have observed of newcomers buying land for vineyards on Etna, completely changing the landscape with bulldozers and other machinery in an effort to profit off of Etna's popularity. It is also a nod to a Neapolitan song from the 1950s with the title “Caravan Petrol”.
Recent investment in Mount Etna has seen the arrival of ambitious producers from all around the globe armed with significant financial resources and modern winemaking techniques. While much has changed in this part of Sicily over the last two decades, pockets remain where time seems to stand still. Driving down the dusty road to Masseria del Pino, Cesare Fulvio and Federica Turillo’s little farm upslope from Randazzo, on the volcano's northern face, it is hard to tell which century we are living in. This is Etna in all its pastoral serenity, with only the sights, scents, and sounds of the mountain to stimulate the senses.
This simple, peaceful lifestyle is precisely what the couple envisioned when they settled here in 2005. Catania natives, they left their jobs—Cesare as a commercial air pilot, Federica as an archery instructor—to cultivate the two hectares of terraced vineyards at Contrada Pino, elevation 800 meters. They renovated the property’s ancient palmento, a traditional farmhouse featuring an old press and large fermentation vats made of lava stone, and began to work the 120-year-old pre-phylloxera vines, plus some olive trees and vegetable gardens, according to organic and biodynamic principles.
Upon bringing in the grapes—for the red, Nerello Mascalese with a bit of Nerello Cappuccio—Cesare and Federica stomp them by foot in these vats. An open-air fermentation begins, then the must is ultimately pressed off into old 500-liter tonneaux, where the wine stays for over a year until bottling. These primitive techniques have changed little since vines first appeared in Contrada Pino in the ninth century, and one can imagine this is what the wine might have tasted like back then. It is a profound Etna Rosso, richly flavored with black cherry, balsamic spices, and a smokiness that recalls the fresh-laid-tar suggestions often found in young Barolo. Its intensely gripping, yet silty-fine tannin is a trademark of wines from Contrada Pino. Cesare proudly remembers when an elderly local peasant identified his red in a blind tasting: “This wine hails from Contrada Pino!” the man exclaimed. For Cesare and Federica, there could be no better compliment. - KLWM
