Tenuta delle Terre Nere 2015 Etna Bianco, Sicily

Tenuta delle Terre Nere 2015 Etna Bianco, Sicily
€25 from On the Grapevine, Dalkey; 64 Wine, Glasthule; Corkscrew, Chatham St.; Green Man Wines, Terenure; Baggot Street Wines.

Soft ripe pear aromas; beautifully balanced wine with clean minerals and pear and a subtle pear skin texture, with a hint of toasted hazelnuts, finishing very dry and long – an excellent evolving wine with fresh elegant precise flavours.

Lightly flavoured seafood dishes (prawns with pasta?) would allow this to show off nicely.

The wines produced on the slopes of Mount Etna have been the talk of the wine world for the last decade. A few determined wine geeks, followed by an ever-increasing horde of producers, have established, or re-established ancient vineyards, largely using indigenous grape varieties. The results have been spectacular; I intend writing an article for the Irish Times over the next few weeks, but in the meantime, I feature one delicious white wine, made from a blend of Carrica, Catarratto, Grecanico and Minella.