In which we blind taste Carricante among other enterprises

The Carricantes:

( these are random assigned numbers, opinions later):

1. 2013 Pietra Marina
2. Terre Nere 2016 Etna Bianco (edited: the Santo Spirito bottling)
3. Graci “Arcuria” 2015
4. (Reserved)
5. 2009 Pietra Marina
6. Graci their basic Etna Bianco 2016
7. Rhys Aeris 2014
8. Another bottle same as #5 but very different provenance: 2009 Pietra Marina

Other wines we drank
Birichino sparkling Malvasia wonderful floral and perfume but also mineral and earthy
1985 Warres Porto big for Warres
1958 Prandi Barolo
2008 Grain Noir Marie-Therese Chappaz Bordeaux blend I love everything she makes I mean really love it.

I’m too tired to write more but several more reds. The Carricantes were surprisingly very different from each other. More later maybe.

That’s quite a range of ages, but no really old ones, say from the early-to-mid aughts? No wonder they showed different! Notes, please!

Following this side discussion on the Esther Mobley thread on Aeris, some of my ex-wine buddies drank the newly released 2014 Aeris Etna Bianco, and described their experience here: https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2508804#p2508804

George then set up last night’s blind tasting of 7 Carricante wines (his 6, and a duplicate 2009 Pietra Marina which I brought, demonstrating my stupidity once again by picking up the 09 instead of a 2011 I thought I was bringing). A few miscellaneous wines rounded out the evening. There was some lively discussion, agreement and disagreement, at one point a raucous food fight, I’m pretty sure George made his post from jail. Quite an enjoyable evening, really. Here are my notes on the blind wines, and an interesting Barolo, also brought by George.

1958 Prandi Barolo - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo (6/20/2018)
Light body, starts with some nice earth/mushroom on the nose, palate is quite pretty, with medium earthy cherry, good acidity and remarkably good structure for a 60 year old wine. Profound, no, but quite drinkable and enjoyable. (88 pts.)

Carricante Flight 1 (3 wines):

2013 Benanti Etna Bianco Superiore Pietramarina - Italy, Sicily, Etna DOC (6/20/2018)
Distinct buttered popcorn on the nose, with a little air it turns more to caramel corn; decent fruit, bit of high toned sweetness, moderate length, but the out of place sweetness is distracting. Shows very different pedigree from the Pietra Marina bottlings from the old vines vineyard that used to go into this wine. (86 pts.)

2016 Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Bianco - Italy, Sicily, Etna DOC (6/20/2018)
Slightly yellower in color than 6 other Carricantes tasted along side, shows quite a nice pure fruit nose, quite nice on the palate with good intensity and length, nice acidity, quite flavorful, nice finish. (91 pts.)

Vintage? Graci “Arcuria”
Just slightly more yellow in color than the other two wines in the this flight, nice pure fruit nose, quite nice depth of fruit on the palate, good intensity and length, nice acidity, very flavorful. Best in this flight 91

Carricante Flight 2 (4 wines):

2009 Benanti Etna Bianco Superiore Pietramarina - Italy, Sicily, Etna DOC (6/20/2018)
Nicely rich, good balance, excellent length, gets better and better with air, ultimately revealing beautiful depth and tremendous rockiness on the lasting finish. Fabulous. Bottle 1 in a flight of 7 Carricantes that included a duplicate bottle from another source. (94 pts.)

Vintage? Graci Etna Bianco
Nice richness and depth, excellent acidity, long finish. Doesn’t show the mineral rockiness of the other wines, but quite tasty. 92

2014 Aeris Wines Etna Bianco Superiore - Italy, Sicily, Etna DOC (6/20/2018)
Starts out initially a bit higher toned than the 3 other Carricante wines in this flight, but still good depth and length. With air time there is more depth, length, becoming more mineral and rocky on the lasting finish. (93 pts.)

2009 Benanti Etna Bianco Superiore Pietramarina - Italy, Sicily, Etna DOC (6/20/2018)
In a flight of 4 blind Carricante wines, this is the second bottle of 09 (from a different source), so an interesting blind comparison. Shows a nice, slightly savory nose, good medium depth, good balance, medium long finish. As with the other wines, improves with air to show more length and rocky mineratlity on the finish.(92 pts.)

Very interesting Alan, thanks! I’m with you in thinking the ‘14 Aeris is terrific now!

Used to??

Know something I don’t?

Markus, read here:

https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2493879#p2493879

OP amended to add vintages

Some other reds were:

A blind 2014 Clos du Val cab franc that I initially thought was a top Bordeaux but with air it got Californian (the opposite of the Chappaz which went from shrill to terrific with air)

1985 Meyney typical Cordier funk which I have never liked, good full wine, very ready

1988 Barbaresco corked

Larry’'s Champagne full rich ready excellent – Pierre someone --Delamotte?

Thanks for posting, George and Alan.

Overall I liked these Carricantes less, my ratings ran from 86 to 91, but in a similar pattern. Unlike George, I found these all to be very similar to each other. Moderate to high acid, high minerality, slightly savory nose. My favorites were the base Graci, the ‘09 Pietramarina and the Aeris. Over the evening the Aeris opened the most, really starting to show some interesting savory and minty notes on the nose. But overall these were high mineral/acid whites without a lot of the fruit I look for (on nose or palate) of my favorite dry whites. Pure personal preference, of course.

Somehow I didn’t take notes on every bottle but here are a few. I adored the 1985 Port but was long past note taking mode.

1985 Marchesi di Gresy Barbaresco Martinenga Gaiun … cooked/expired … a rare Winebid failure.

2011 Bonneau CdP - very good wine. Bright red fruit, some alcohol on the nose. Very rich palate with lots of deep red fruit, earth, moderate tannins, good length. Showing well but with more to reveal. 91

2008 Gimonnet Extra Brut 1er Bdb Non Dosé. Yeast, honey, bread nose. Very dry, nice balance, tart, a bit lacking in fruit. Straightforward. Good but not awesome. 89

1958 Prandi Barolo some tannin still, acid tart red fruit, faded but still very good. Nose less interesting, light, pretty but a hint of sherry. Lots to enjoy here, didn’t taste ‘old.’ 90

1994 Fontalloro. Light red fruit nose, tastes of cherry and red fruit, tart and faded, some acid. Nice but past it’s prime. 90

1985 Meyney - green pepper, leather, earth nose, wonderful red fruit, a bit tart on the palate, soft, med length, a bit lacking in acid. Still very good. 91.

Appreciate the notes. Commendable lineup and one I was really hoping to see so tip of the cap to you gentlemen.

Question for those involved in the tasting is this: Was their a readily discernible difference (new world vs old world) when it came to the Aeris?

Follow up question regarding price: Given pricing and availability, does the Aeris change your buying habit (if there is one) when it comes to Carricante or do does it simply reaffirm your existing preference/love for old world production?

Really interesting tasting.

My blind notes:

First flight bottles 1 2 3:

1. Inferior to 2 and 3 substantially, then improved, but clearly 3d place out of 3 (2013 PM)
2. Same style as 1 but far better, butterscotch finish almost worrisome but then just great (Terre Nere)
3. Rich and complete, almost too much so, I’d prefer a little more restraint (Graci Arcuria)

3 got the most first place votes. We only counted first place votes. I found that the flavors of Carricante for my palate need a minerally rather than soft rich style. Richard’s post makes it clear we don’t look for the same style for this grape. I liked 2 the most.

Second flight:

5. Like sailing in a very brisk breeze, and sometimes a wave comes over the starboard bow and hits you in the face. Ethereal otherworldly brave wine that evokes all kinds of marine images, challenging and terrific, my WOTN of all wines white and red by far. (Bottle One of 09 PM)

6. Beautiful nose soft palate stayed beautiful. (Basic Graci)

7. Complex rich full and shows all its flavors. No unified statement. (Rhys Aeris)

8. I tried to find the complexity Alan and Richard found. With extensive air there was some, but little more than a tease. Very similar to the Aeris I brought to Andrew’s that did not show well and prompted this dinner. (Bottle Two of 09 PM)

5 got the most first place votes.

So. Rhys Aeris. The Rhys Aeris had all the pieces but was not a unified statement, I found no sex appeal yet. It needs time, I’d say five years minimum. Obviously the bottle I brought to Andrew’s was off, #8 tonight reminded me of the Aeris at Andrew’s.

So. Aging carricante. My best out of seven (#5) and my second worst out of seven were the same wine, the 09 PM. Was the lesser bottle (#8) provenance damaged? Or was it the better stored bottle and was very tight? Was the Aeris bottle at Andrew’s, even after a three hour decant, just tight?
And the base Graci outshone the much higher end Graci Arcuria. The Arcuria needs a lot more age? See Tom Hill’s recent TN’s on these two where he found the Arcuria clearly superior, I’d bet he gave them more air than we.

I now own one bottle of Carricante, which is my other bottle of Aeris. Based on tonight, no chance I will open it in the next six years barring a specific compelling reason.

It seems great Carricante counterintuitively can show full and rich and ready when in fact it is wayyyy too young. The oldest wine, the better bottle of 2009, was a large step above the other bottles in drive and cohesion. It told a story. Same vineyard now used by Rhys so the Aeris 2014 might be like that in five years.

@Bobby. The Aeris was very similar to the others, and no surprise because it IS old world. Grown and made in Sicily, by an Italian winemaker.

In terms of buying habits, there was much debate over whether the Aeris, at $65, was ‘worth it’ relative to the others. My own opinion was a soft ‘not worth it’ as I found it to be very similar to the others, including some at half the price. But it’s a soft POV because I’d never bought Carricante before and not likely to buy some any time soon as the flavor profile doesn’t match my own preferences.

My 2009 was over $100. The Arcuria cost me the same as the Rhys. The Terre Nere was $47. I don’t remember what I paid for the 2013 PM but K & L sells it right now for the same price as the Rhys and it is far inferior. So Rhys is charging the exact same price as almost all other high end carricantes.

George, wish you had let me contribute the Pietra Marina. Everything I’ve bought (2010 and earlier) was $40 or under. I bought the 09 for $30 from K&L back in 2014. I did buy a couple of 11s, before I understood how the vineyard source had changed, but nothing since then.

Ah, pity.

So, I took home the remains of bottle 8, stuck it in the fridge, and am drinking it now. Tonight it shows somewhat flat and tired, a bit oxidative. Having sat out all evening during dinner probably didn’t help it, but it could be this particular bottle had some incipient oxidation or low level heat damage, assuming it was George’s bottle purchased recently. Tastes a lot like you guys described the first Aeris bottle from May.

Yes it reminded very much of that bottle. Very glad you brought a better version.

Terre Nere day two: tightened up in a way that makes the richer flavors really lovely counterpoint to the more interesting stuff including a dark earthy Oxford-library thing. Based on this I would love to try the Aeris and the Arcuria on day four or so. I feel that not tasting those two wines with tons of air is a missed opportunity.

Alan’s TN on the 58 Pradi is word for word dead on for my palate, except he did not mention how I want to paint my dining room that exact salmon color on the label. I was ecstatic it was pleasurable at all, I don’t think it was ever a big wine, so I give it a solid 91. Wine #5 gets a 97 on my scale, a couple of points higher than maybe all of the small production Chardonnays I happily “discovered” this year, the most recent being Neely (Varner successors, sort of, owners become winemakers, at Villa Montalvo huge local tasting a few weeks ago) and Walter Scott (thanks Charlie Fu, followed by me contacting Sandy Thompson and the winery) for example.

Alan mentioned how the lower end Graci was missing the rocks. Yes. When I went to Biondivino a few weeks ago to prep for this dinner and Benanti was pouring six of their wines – surprised to find two very good higher-priced reds one of which was pure sexy – there was the 2013 Pietra Marina and then the “basic” Etna Bianco. The “basic” was wonderful, fully expressed, bright and rich and delightful, much broader than the PM, but with no rocks; while the PM was much deeper, much narrower, more serious, and quite minerally at the bottom in comparison. The point? Eerily very much like the “basic” Graci last night: drink now this broad delightful wine and really enjoy, in both cases (low end PM and Graci) under $30, but in exchange you are losing rocks/minerality. The more expensive ones, except maybe this Terre Nere I am loving, need a lot of time I now believe.

Finally…for those who are actually reading this who are not Carricante obsessives, you are reading this because you are curious about whether all Rhys ventures are trustworthy as they expand into Europe and the wilds of Corralitos. If the Aeris ages into something along the lines of Wine #5, which was made from the same vineyard and probably not with the science and meticulousness of Rhys, at $65 buy all you can and sit on it.

Was the Terre Nere the Calderara Sottana or the Santo Spirito?

George,
I am very happy to hear that you had a chance to experience an Etna Bianco Superiore in its prime with the 2009 Pietramarina. The wines do become increasingly complex with age and the best drinking window is usually age 6-12. I remember when I first tasted one (2001 Pietramarina) and I was similarly thrilled. After that I showed the wine to a Burgundian winemaker (who produced Chevalier Montrachet and Montrachet) and he was also quite impressed.

While there has been very little Etna Bianco Superiore (minimum 80% Carricante grown in the town of Milo) made recently, this will be changing. There are now three large new 100% Carricante plantings. In the subdistrict of Milo called Caselle there are two - Ours is about 6 acres, Salvo Foti’s (winemaker of Pietramarina through 2010) is about 8 acres. Menahwhile Benanti has planted about 10 acres in the Rinazzo subdistrict. My understanding is that this will be the future Pietramarina.

Of course, we have also planted 5 acres on Centennial Mountain but that’s another story…