“Benanti must be part of any conversation about wineries that put Etna on the map” says Eric Guido at Vinous.

When Giuseppe Benanti founded the estate in 1988, only four wineries operated on the volcano and nearly all production was destined for bulk blending. The family committed from the outset to indigenous varieties and rigorous terroir investigation. Giuseppe enlisted a young Salvo Foti as winemaker and sought counsel from academics in Burgundy and Piedmont, conducting more than 150 micro-vinifications in the early years to understand Etna’s clonal diversity and potential. Benanti remains the only estate with vineyards on all four slopes of the Etna DOC. Today the winery is run by Giuseppe’s twin sons, Antonio and Salvino, producing roughly 250,000 bottles annually from 28 hectares of organically farmed vines.

Pietra Marina is 100% carricante grown in the Contrada Rinazzo on the eastern slope near Milo, at roughly 800 meters above sea level. The vines are head-trained bush vines (alberello), some reaching over 80 years of age, planted on small lava-stone-walled terraces of sandy volcanic soil. Milo is the only zone permitted for the Etna Bianco Superiore designation, and Pietra Marina was the first Etna wine to receive the Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri, in 2007. The wine is fermented with the estate’s own indigenous yeasts in stainless steel and aged on the lees for approximately thirty months, with frequent stirring, before spending another year in bottle.

The result is a white wine of extraordinary aging potential and evolving complexity. Young, it is mineral, floral, and bright with citrus. With a decade or more of age, it deepens into something altogether different: muskier, more herbal and saline, with notes of almond, anise, and sea breeze. The 2019 was awarded 95 points by Vinous, with Eric Guido describing it as “nothing short of spellbinding.”