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Francesco Tornatore
Carricante from Tornatore's terraced vineyards on Etna's north slope at Castiglione di Sicilia. Concrete-fermented, three months resting on its spent yeast: green apple, grapefruit and a salty volcanic stoniness, from £20.60 in the UK.
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Tornatore ferments this Etna Bianco cold at 15 to 16C in concrete and rests it three months on its fine spent yeast. Green apple, grapefruit, white peach and aromatic herbs sit over a salty, stony palate.
Green apple, grapefruit and white peach, with a mentholated, aromatic-herb edge from the terraced north-slope vines at Castiglione di Sicilia, the notes Tornatore itself puts on its technical sheet. Citrus and orchard fruit over stone, in short.
Grapefruit
Lemon
Green Apple
White peach
Mint
Flint
Wet stonesDry and light-bodied at 12.5% vol in the current releases, with the juicy acidity of Carricante picked in the second half of October. Fermentation in concrete at 15 to 16C and three months resting on the fine spent yeast add a gently creamy texture without any oak flavour. A salty, wet-stone character runs right through it, the note that stands out most.
Clean and salty, closing on grapefruit pith and a smoky, flinty volcanic echo, clearest in the 2024.
The entry point to Tornatore's range and one of the cheaper credible routes into Etna Bianco DOC. A well-liked everyday white, precise and elegant at a very attractive price by Etna standards. Serve at 10 to 12C with shellfish and drink it young.
Four UK-shipping listings from three retailers currently span £20.60 to £24.56 across the 2024 and 2025 vintages, close to the 20 euro cellar-door price on tornatorewine.com.
The scores below weigh this bottle's £20.60 UK entry price, 12.5% alcohol and yeast-rested Carricante profile against its Etna DOC peers.
Salty acidity and a light 12.5% frame cover shellfish, fried food and tomato bakes, and drinkers pair it with shellfish and vegetarian plates.
A dry, fresh, unoaked take on Sicily's flagship white grape Carricante: classic Carricante character with no tannin, no oak and no austerity to trip up a first-time Etna drinker.
£20.60 at the cheapest UK listing undercuts Tornatore's own single-vineyard Pietrarizzo (£28.48 at Vinatis) and most rival Etna Bianco DOC bottlings, a very attractive price by Etna standards.
Drink-young, 12.5%, food-flexible and open on release; only the £20.60 to £24.56 UK price keeps it from being a true weeknight default.
Etna DOC cachet and a 90-point James Suckling 2024 give it dinner-party credibility, but it sits below Tornatore's single-vineyard Pietrarizzo and the prestige single-vineyard bottlings of the slope.
No DOC ageing mandate, concrete-only cellaring and a freshness-first style; the 2024 drinks to 2030, so this is short-hold drinking, not a collector's white.
Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our Wine Fit Score methodology.
A compact view of what the Etna denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.
Tornatore picks its Carricante in the second half of October from terraces around 650 metres on Etna's north slope. The 2024 is 12.5% vol and took 90 points from James Suckling, a point above his 89 for the 2023.
The current release, listed at 12.5% vol on vino.com and rated 3.9 by early Vivino users, level with the wine's long-run average. Drink it young, while the October-picked Carricante fruit is freshest.
James Suckling rates the 2024 at 90, a point up on his 89 for the 2023 of this wine. At 12.5% vol it is built for freshness, with Vinatis listing it to drink until 2030.
The current release, listed at 12.5% vol on vino.com and rated 3.9 by early Vivino users, level with the wine's long-run average. Drink it young, while the October-picked Carricante fruit is freshest.
Drink-now / hold guidance reflects general style cues for this wine, not a forecast for a specific bottle. Where vintage-level editorial notes exist, they appear above.
Etna DOC caps white-grape yields at 9 tonnes per hectare and requires a release tasting before wines carry the name. Tornatore's own sheet declares a lower 7 tonnes per hectare from its terraces at Castiglione di Sicilia.
Italian wine law sorts bottles into a pyramid. DOCG sits at the top: tightly drawn boundaries, prescribed grapes, mandatory ageing, government tasting before release. DOC is the same idea with looser thresholds. IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) is broader still, requiring only that 85% of the grapes come from the named territory.
Etna is in the DOC tier. That is not a quality verdict, it is a description of how much freedom the producer has at vinification and ageing.
Etna falls within Sicily, covering Parts of 20 communes on the slopes of Mount Etna, all in the province of Catania. The denomination is further divided into 4 sub-zones.
Wine route
2 days · 8 stops
Open the driveMade at Francesco Tornatore, Castiglione di Sicilia.
Wine route in the zone: Strada del Vino dell'Etna.
Tornatore picks into small crates in the second half of October and hand-sorts on a belt at the winery, labour the Castiglione di Sicilia terraces force on every bottle.
Etna DOC allows 9 tonnes per hectare for whites; Tornatore's sheet declares 7 tonnes per hectare, fewer bottles per row and a higher grape cost per bottle.
Fermentation and three months of rest on the spent yeast happen in concrete. Skipping barrels keeps cellar cost out of the price and helps this sit at £20.60 while the single-vineyard Pietrarizzo lists at £28.48.
Tornatore farms around 100 hectares with the biggest vineyard extension in the DOC per its estate page, spreading fixed costs across far more bottles than the slope's small growers.
HMRC duty of £2.67 on a still wine at 12.5% ABV plus 20% VAT accounts for roughly £6.10 of the £20.60 entry price. That is before a drop of the wine itself is paid for.
Dishes that go with this wine
Shellfish and vegetarian plates come first, then fish, white meat and fresh cheeses. The salty, high-acid palate is what does the work at the table.
Sfincione carries sweet tomato, onion and anchovy on an oily crumb. Carricante's fresh acidity, kept sharp by Tornatore's cold 15 to 16C concrete fermentation, matches the tomato's bite so neither side turns flat. The wine's saltiness picks up the anchovy rather than fighting it.
Try with: Sfincione, Sicilian Pizza · Pasta arrabbiata · Insalata Caprese · More pairings →
The wet-stone saltiness that stands out more than any other note in this wine mirrors oyster brine, and its acidity does the lemon's job. Shellfish is the first pairing drinkers reach for with this bottle.
Try with: Oysters · Potted Shrimp · Fregula ai frutti di mare · More pairings →
Tornatore's sheet calls out aromatic herbs and a mentholated top note; those aromas bridge straight into oregano and lemon dressed Sicilian swordfish. The body stays light enough never to swamp the fish.
Try with: Pesce spada alla Siciliana · Fregula ai frutti di mare · Steamed sea bass · More pairings →
High natural acidity and a 12.5% frame scrub the fat from crumbed and fried food, resetting the palate between bites. It is the local move with arancini, straight off the fry.
Try with: Arancini · Gnocco fritto · Fish and Chips · More pairings →
Three months resting on fine spent yeast give gentle texture without oak weight, so mozzarella and lighter rice dishes sit level with the wine instead of underneath it. Fresh cheeses are a natural match for this bottle.
Try with: Insalata Caprese · Squid ink risotto · Steamed sea bass · More pairings →
Capsaicin amplifies alcohol burn and strips this wine's delicate herb and citrus aromatics; a bone-dry 12.5% white with no sugar left in it has nothing to cushion madras or Szechuan heat. Reach for an off-dry aromatic white instead.
Skip with: Chicken madras · Chicken jalfrezi · Szechuan beef · Mapo tofu · Pairing guide →
This is the estate's entry white, raised in concrete with no oak programme. The 2024 will drink until 2030, so buy it for freshness rather than long ageing; the single-vineyard Pietrarizzo is the Tornatore white built for holding.
Best in the years above; holds without falling over either side.
Pour it straight from the bottle.
Aim for the cooler end on a warm day; warmer end opens up more aromatics.
No DOC ageing mandate, concrete-only cellaring and a freshness-first style; the 2024 drinks to 2030, so this is short-hold drinking, not a collector's white.
£22.00 for a 75cl bottle of the 2025, at XtraWine, is the best price we track, and we have no signal of further discounting.
Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 25 Oct 2026, 03:33 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.
Confidence · HighDrawn from published drinker ratings, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic.
Confidence · MediumFrom the official Italian disciplinare for this denomination, cross-checked against the Ministry of Agriculture register.
Confidence · HighOur reading of the price, drawn from the disciplinare, public UK duty rates, and typical landed-cost benchmarks. Not a quote from the producer or a retailer.
Confidence · MediumStyle guidance for this kind of wine at this price point. Treat it as advice, not a forecast for the bottle in your hand.
Confidence · MediumCarricante. Tornatore's own technical sheet lists Carricante as the variety, grown on terraced vineyards on the north slope of Etna at Castiglione di Sicilia. Some shop datasheets list a small share of Catarratto in specific vintages, but the producer states Carricante.
Green apple, grapefruit and white peach with aromatic herbs on the nose, then a dry, salty palate built on volcanic stone. It ferments in concrete at 15 to 16C and spends about three months resting on its fine spent yeast, so the texture is gently creamy with no oak flavour.
Shellfish first: oysters, seafood pasta and raw or grilled fish, where the wine's saltiness mirrors the brine. It also fits Sicilian swordfish, fried food like arancini, fresh cheeses and tomato-based bakes such as sfincione.
Between £20.60 and £24.56 a bottle across the UK-shipping retailers we track, covering the 2024 and 2025 vintages. That sits at the affordable end of Etna Bianco DOC, and below Tornatore's own single-vineyard Pietrarizzo bottling.
Drink it young. This is the estate's freshness-first entry white at 12.5% vol, and the 2024 will drink until 2030, so a few years' hold is safe but not required. Serve it at 10 to 12C.
Azienda Agricola Tornatore Francesco, a family estate at Castiglione di Sicilia founded in 1865 and holding around 100 hectares, with the largest vineyard extension in the Etna DOC according to the producer. The estate is VIVA and SOStain certified and runs its winery on renewable energy.
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