THE GUARDIANS OF MT. ETNA'S VINEYARDS

BROUGHT TO YOU BY UNWINED STORY & PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN ACTON is present in your seafood tower, however. It’s the squeeze of lemon you’ll no longer need. Today’s recipe, should you need one, hails from Traditional Irish Cooking by the doyen of Irish cooking, Darina Allen. Allen has long run the stalwart Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork. Think Alice Waters meets Jaques Pepin. Trust me, with this paring, you’ll be reminded just how lucky you are.

For me, the chilled seafood tower is the height of fine dining. Maybe it’s a bit of nostalgia, since the restaurants that do it best are those that are delightfully retro—the sorts of places that fuss over their martini or steak tartare, where the servers are probably wearing a jacket, or where sauces such as Béarnaise, Bordelaise, Poivrade, (or preferably) Américaine are still plentiful. But, perhaps there’s something more to it. A chilled seafood tower is simple and direct. It celebrates the quality of the ingredient, providing little chance for inferior product to hide behind artifice. It’s also let’s face it, hedonistic and indulgent. And, hey, who doesn’t want to feel like a million bucks from time to time?

But, what to drink? Given the scene I’ve described, one could, of course, go the full Mad Men route and pile on the martinis. I prefer to keep my wits about me, however. The seafood tower, after all, is best consumed as part of a leisurely lunch that stretches on, paying no mind to normal conventions for proper mealtimes. The martini rather demands to be the center of attention, requiring prompt consumption before it warms, and it is the tower that is the star for us here. No, instead, for me it has got to be a crisp dry white wine that is reminiscent of the sea. Chablis, Muscadet, or Assyrtiko of proper stature would all be satisfying. Today, however, I’d like to recommend something different: a Carricante from Sicily’s Mount Etna, in particular I Custodi Etna Bianco "Ante" 2018 ($40).

Carricante is an ancient white grape variety that is indigenous to Sicily and now flourishes mainly in small pockets of high elevation vineyards on Mount Etna (typically between 950 and 1,050 meters above sea level). Its name translates loosely to “load the cart,” referring, presumably, to the variety’s tendency to have high yields. When the vines struggle in the poor volcanic soils and cooler eastern and southern sites of Mount Etna, where the region’s chief red variety Nerello Mascalese often fails to ripen, they can yield what is arguably one of Italy’s truly great white wines—wines that are long lived and intensely saline, marked by aromas of oyster shell, iodine, and white flowers. As the wines age, they tend to take on flinty, petrol-like aromas reminiscent of fine aged Riesling. Unlike other Sicilian white varieties such as Grillo or Moscato Bianco, which figured in Marsala and passito wines respectively, Carricante has always had a history of being produced as a dry still wine—perhaps a testament to its quality, not to malign the other varieties.

Mario and Manuela Paoluzi, as the name I Custodi suggests, consider themselves keepers or guardians of Etna’s great vineyards. They take it as their task to preserve the land and maintain the traditions of its people. Their farming practices are of course certified organic and many of the vines that they tend are quite old (up to 250 years old) and ungrafted. Their Etna Bianco “Ante” is sourced from a single vineyard at 900 meters of elevation on the eastern slope of Mount Etna. It is 90% Carricante, with the balance split between grapes like Grecanico and Minella. The 1.6 hectares of vines planted in this site (the oldest being 40 years of age) are head-trained bush vines. The grapes are hand harvested as late as possible to ensure ripeness and to bring the variety’s notable acidity into check. The wine is fermented with native yeasts and spends a year and a half in stainless tanks.