After the success of the Tenuta di Trinoro, the owner, Andrea Franchetti, wished to undertake a new wine project in southern Italy and, after a study of the roads suitable for the purpose, identified the production area on the slopes of Etna volcano. Currently Etna wines occupy a prominent position in Italian wine production, but at the turn of 2000 this wasn’t the condition at all: mostly abandoned vineyards with dilapidated and disused wineries (and palmenti) were the recurrent leitmotif. It was precisely Andrea’s happy intuition that gave rise to an enological renaissance which today, although little more than 20 years have passed, has already made history. The first task was the recovery of typical terraced vineyards and the replanting of new ones with very high density. Franchetti uniqueness was also that of cultivating, alongside the traditional grapes of the area (nerello mascalesse above all), non-native vines such as cesanese, petit verdot and chardonnay.
This Contrada PC (PassoChianche=white step) is born precisely from a very small Chardonnay vineyard at about 900 meters above sea level, with an extremely limited production. Manual harvesting of the grapes is followed by destemming and a short cold maceration, soft pressing and fermentation in 20 hl wooden barrels. Here the wine ages for 6 months on the fine lees and, after the removal of lees, for 6 others months, followed by 6 others in glass, before placing on the market.
Passochianche 2018 has a straw-yellow color, with greenish reflections, not too consistent, with a nose of great precision, in which it is perceived both the varietal component (peach, pineapple, citrus fruits, chamomile and cedar) as well as the territorial one (sage, Mediterranean scrub, smoky touches and burnt sulphur). The mouthfeel is very fresh and decidedly sapid, almost ferrous, with a long fruity and spicy progression that closes with an acid-almond finish.
Rating: 89/100
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