Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Bianco may well be the archetype for one of the more nebulous wine descriptors: minerality. This dry Sicilian white smells like the sea, and from the moment it hits your mouth to its impressively long finish, tastes like you’re licking a pebble plucked from the beach. A blend of five grapes – carricante, catarratto, grecanico, inzolia and minnella, some from vines as old as 60 years – this wine is a perfect expression of the volcanic terroir of Mount Etna and the salty Mediterranean water that surrounds the island. Priced in the low $20s, it is a true overachiever. Enjoy it with creatures of the sea.
This article appears in Readers’ Choice 2014.