I Custodi "Ante" Etna Bianco, Sicily, Italy 2021

FROM PORTOVINO:

THE WINE: 90% Carricante and 10% of Grecanico, Minnella and other minor varieties. Ante, whose name is an anagram of Etna, is a study of volcanic minimalism: sketches of volcanic spice and Ionian salt breezes.

THE PRODUCER: It’s spring, yet all of a sudden the air is becoming bitter cold. Extreme diurnal temperature swings mark one of many differences that make Mt. Etna different from the sun-n-fun vibe you usually find in Sicilia. We grab our jackets and start walking among I Custodi’s gnarly bush vines, curled into the stark black soils. The muted sun falls on cooled lava flows and crumbled pomice fields. Dry-terraced lava walls demarcate the vista. This is what it must be like to grow vines on the moon.

From its beginning in 2007, local owner Mario Paoluzi set the groundwork to make I Custodi an Etna fuoriclasse, as the Italians say, one of the greats. Besides sending us many cell phone pics of when A Muntagna is erupting, he has had unwavering passion to work exclusively with the ancient albarello bush vines, some of which in his possession are 150+ years old. He also has key vineyards holdings on the northern and southeastern slopes, and a cellar that allows for long ferments and exteneded elevage.