Alberelli di GIODO Sicilia Carricante 2023

James Suckling

The purity of fruit and transparency are really captivating, with aromas of dried apples, limes, green mangoes and crushed stones. Medium-bodied with flavors of sliced apples and pears. Minerally undertone. Long and flavorful.

Robert Parker

Release Price: $90 | With its distinctive baby-blue wax capsule, the Alberelli di Giodo 2023 Carricante is another highlight in my tasting of white wines from Etna. I love the clarity and brightness of aromas achieved here. They include, citrus, white peach and lots of delicate salty mineral shadings that add to a sense of lasting structure and depth. The wine gives the appearance of simplicity, but it is anything but. It offers continued complexity and layers of interest as it warms in the glass. Fruit is harvested from 50- to 80-year-old vines at a high 750 to 850 meters in elevation. Winemaking is in stainless steel only. This is a 4,000-bottle release.

The Drinks Business

(Terre Siciliane IGT; 100% Carricante; from a tiny vineyard of 0.9 hectares on the upper limits of the planted slopes of Etna on a, perhaps unremarkably, volcanic terroir at 800-900 metres of altitude; just 7000 bottles; vinification and 6 months of subsequent aging in steel tanks and then in bottle for 12 months; 12.5% alcohol). Wondrously crystalline, pure, energetic and shimmering – and all in a way immediately apparent from the aromatics, you don’t even need to put it in your mouth. But that would be a shame, a great shame! Bitingly fresh on the palate with an intense and vivid clarity that shouts ‘altitude’ – you can almost feel the cool nights in the sapid, juicy core of this wine. Mandarin zest, lime, linden, wild floral honey, lemon thyme and a hint of green tea – and something a little more exotic too, perhaps star fruit. I love the zesty fresh citrus notes that gather on the finish. I’d say this were quaffable, but it’s simply too vibrant and fresh for that.

Club Oenologique

Contrada Rampante boasts vineyards that reach high altitude (outside of the DOC boundaries, which is why its wines are labelled as Terre Siciliane IGT), including a tiny vineyard planted with very old bush-trained vines that captured the imagination of famous Italian winemaker Carlo Ferrini when he discovered them in 2016. At the winery, only inert vessels are used for fermentation and ageing takes place on the lees to enhance the purity of the fruit. The wine is rich but not opulent, with citrus fruit, pink grapefruit and plum. Vibrant acidity is well integrated and there’s a pleasant smoky finish. 2022 was a beautiful vintage with precise, defined wines ready to be drunk. This Alberelli di Giodo can evolve in bottle for at least 8-10 years before it reaches its plateau.

Robert Parker

The irony is that historically Carlo Ferrini's best wines are his reds, and many of those are made in Tuscany. However, this talented winemaker now brings us one of the very best white wines from Sicily's Etna. The Alberelli di Giodo 2021 Sicilia Carricante hits that beautiful intersection between citrusy fruit and salty mineral. The wine is balanced and intense and reveals more complexity that you might expect. We should expect even more as it ages and begins to show some of those lovely Riesling-like petroleum aromas in time. Production is limited to about 3,500 bottles.

James Suckling

Loads of jasmine and honeysuckle with sliced-pear and apple aromas that follow through to a medium body with wonderful depth and intensity. Great length. No wood. Flinty. Pure. Release in January 2023.

Decanter

So fragrant on the nose, wild white flowers mixed with dried herbs and aromatic peaches and lychees. Crisp yet round, a lovely burst of citrus juiciness on the palate with high acidity that zings and then settles revealing more creamy white peach and pear with subtle wet stone saltiness and herbal spice around the edges. Feels like a serious, gourmet wine, with body, structure and yet lots of life. Ends mineral and salty, I love it, with a flash of heat and southern Italy spice about it. 100% Carricante vines, averaging 50 years in age, planted between 800-900 in altitude. Ageing six months in steel tanks on the lees and 10 months in bottle before release.

WinesCritic.com

Extremely elegant, it shows a solid sensorial progression that starts from the bottom in the nuances of different intensities of lime, boxwood, bergamot, gardenias, rincospermo, cut grass and vetiver. The pleasantness of the matrix is told with ground almonds and fenugreek in the background. Medium body, vibrant structure and a finish that speaks of freshness and tension. Simply rare and excellently interpreted in the concentrated vintage.

Houlberg

Duften er sgu ganske dejlig aromatisk ... nærmest som en sammensmeltning af vingummi, godt med gule og hvide blomster, æbler, pærer og så ellers en jernhård mineralitet. Man tænker lige WTF aka what the fuck, men alt virker samtidig så fint afbalanceret, at intet stritter eller stikker ud. Men fornemmer også intensiteten fra sur lie lagringen, hvilket giver vinen noget krop. Smagen er tør, præcis og frisk ... det er clean, men rankt ... men smager mindsandten vildt godt. Her er man helt på midten af vejen ud svinkeærinder eller komme ud i grøften, for smagen er så klar, ren og direkte, at man bare bliver glad. Vinen har god spændstighed, men er samtidig fin, rund og delikat, mens mineraliteten virker elegant, tøjlet og har en syre, som opererer i det skjulte og bare sikrer den størst mulige nydelse. 95 point. Forhandles af Supervin, hvor en flaske koster 699,95 kr., mens prisen er 599,95 kr. ved køb af 6 flasker.

Vinum

From ancient bush vines in high altitudes: The first notes are finely detailed, with aromas of raspberries and blossoms, also balsamic nuances; a noble texture, with the acidity and tannins wonderfully balanced, long, fresh-fruity, yet incredibly elegant. Very successful.

Jancis Robinson

Old vines. Pale straw. Rich nose – all lees and vines! Great energy. Masses of tension. It would be great to see this next to a fine white burgundy. Long and fine.