Eduardo Torres Acosta "Versante Nord" Bianco, Sicily, Italy 2023

FROM LOUIS/DRESSNER:

THE WINE: 50% Minnella/50% Carricante-Catarratto-Grecanico-Inzolia-other. Eduardo organically farms parcels totalling 3.5 hectares on the north face or versante nord of Mt. Etna. Those parcels are scattered amongst 6 different contrade or districts (Pietramarina, Allegracore, Sciaranuova, Friera, Santo Spirito and Marchesa). The soils are sandy volcanic ash and the elevation ranges from 550 to 850 meters. Averaging over 50 years old, the vines are generally trained in alberello, either as individual bushes or on wires depending on the parcel; the varieties are generally interplanted (with about 10-15% of the vines being white grapes separated out for this bottling). The bunches are hand-harvested, destemmed, co-fermented spontaneously with native yeasts and without sulfur in concrete tank without temperature control. Maceration lasts for around 5 days. 80% of the wine is aged in cement vat and 20% in tonneaux for 8 months. It is bottled without fining or filtration and with a tiny amount of sulfur.

THE PRODUCER: Eduardo Torres Acosta, a young winemaker from the Canary Islands, first began working with vines in Tenerife where his father (a local postman) had a small plot of land. In 2012 Eduardo moved to Sicily, where he interned at Azienda Arianna Occhipinti (you may have heard of her). Soon thereafter he got a job as the enologist at Azienda Passopisciaro, one of the pioneers of Etna's new wave of producers. Despite Eduardo’s "outsider" status, he managed to rent several fine parcels on Etna from locals. Up until the 2017 vintage, the grapes were harvested and then trucked to Arianna Occhipinti’s estate in Vittoria. Since the winemaking facility was not on Etna, the wines were not allowed DOC status and simply carry the IGT Terre Siciliane designation. In 2018, Eduardo was able to convert a small Etna garage into a winery but has decided to keep the wines IGT.