Viteadovest Bianco Terre Siciliane 2021

Press 4 White • August 2024 Direct Press Selection

Marsala has experienced a serious rise and fall in fortune over the past hundred years. It was one of the most modern, wealthy cities in Italy from wine, salt, and caper trade but now has half of the production and vines and sells most of its wines off as cooking wine for restaurants. Nothing less to lose also means a kind of freedom, to paraphrase Kris Kristofferson, and a few winemakers are showing that Marsala still has much to offer the wine world. For growers like Vincenzo Angileri, he has looked to Marsala's past to make dry, oxidative wines from local varieties like Grillo and Catarratto. He has reclaimed the family's grapes from being sold off to bulk wine production and has helped others to do the same. 

This Bianco, made from Grillo and Catarratto, sees 21 days on the skins and has zero sulfur added. The oxidative approach and the skin maceration helps preserve the wine, a very old method that still works. Unsurprising given the salt production in the region, this is a salty beverage. However it is a wine with terrific tension and contrasting elements. Dark oxidative notes of orange peel, sun tea, and cinnamon are met with snappy notes of dried apple ring, fresh pear, and zappy acidity. There is a clarity and edge to the wine that make it refreshing while it shows off the hot, flat, dry land it comes from. Jonathan Kemp