94 Points, James Suckling
Very typical for the region’s whites with pears, green apples, sea salt, brine and seaweed. Some flowers, such as honeysuckle. It’s medium-bodied with a creamy texture and fresh finish. Bitter lemon at the end.
92 Points, Wine Enthusiast
Sweet white flowers, chamomile and spice give way to crushed apples as the 2024 Etna Bianco Pietradolce wafts up from the glass. Pleasantly ripe in style, it splashes across the palate with crisp orchard fruits and minty herbal tones. This finishes with a sense of refinement as a tactile mineral tinge lingers.
This one comes from Sicily’s new elite, and doing just the tiniest bit of research on the producer lends eye-opening results. “Pietradolce boasts some of the most beautiful vineyards I have ever seen. I cannot exaggerate this point.” wrote Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. “Pietradolce is long known for extremely high quality red wines”, is what Ian D’Agata of Vinous Media chimed in with. Even James Suckling who never mixes his words (and never uses too many) called the wines made off of Pietradolce’s vineyards, “the best in the region.”
Despite being relatively new, Pietradolce’s wines made off the Northern slopes of the Etna Volcano are simply staggering. They choose to focus on only a few wines – mainly Carricante and Nerello Mascalese, two grapes in which consulting enologist Carlo Ferrini specializes.
Etna, with its rich mix of different elevations and exposures and densely planted centenarian vines, sprouting from soils that include congealed magma, has become a magnet for terroir-conscience wine producers. Some see it as a new Cote d’Or, and vine holdings are similarly parcellated.”