IDDA Bianco Sicilia DOP, Angelo Gaja & Alberto Graci

Description

IDDA Bianco Sicilia is a new white wine from Sicily, produced by a brand new joint venture between arguably the most famous producer of Barbaresco, Angelo Gaja, and Alberto Graci an ex banker from Milan who has been making wine in Sicily since 2004. Together they own 21 hectares of vineyards  in the villages of Belpasso and Biancavilla on Etna, the highest active volcano of Europe.

Angelo Gaja has been intrigued by Etna since being introduced to the region by oenologist Giacomo Tachis in the late 1990s but he was busy with other projects outside of Barbaresco at Ca’Marcanda in Tuscany and Pieve Santa Restituta in Montalcino at the time. However, Gaja was left with a nagging felling that he really wanted to make wine in Sicily and Etna in particular. Gaja and Graci first met in 2015 and quickly bonded, beginning their joint venture in 2016. Currently the wine is made at Alberto Graci’s winery in Passopisciaro but a dedicated winery is scheduled to be built at Belpasso to be used for the 2022 harvest.

IDDA Bianco Sicilia DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protteta) is made from 100% Carricante grapes sourced from vineyards located in both in Biancavilla, on the south-west slope of the Etna Volcano, between 700-800 m a.s.l. (2296-2624 ft), and in Belpasso, on the southern slope of the Etna Volcano, between 600-700 m a.s.l. (1968 – 2296 ft). After the harvest there is cold pressing of the whole bunches. After a static clarification, fermentation took place at controlled temperature between 18-20°C, partly in 10 hl oak barrels and partly in stainless steel. The wine, filtered, was bottled one year after, during mid-October 2019.

IDDA means “she” in Sicilian dialect and it is the name the locals call Etna.