Benanti

Italy, Sicily

Giuseppe Benanti Jr re-established the Benanti winery on the slopes of Mount Etna in the late 1980's. The family were gifted land there back in the 1730's by a grateful King Victor Amedeos II, but the business had fizzled out in the mid-20th Century. The family now own 14ha of vineyard in carefully selected sites on the mountain, and manage a further 10ha, and have assembled a healthy reputation for some of Sicily's finest wines.

Giuseppe Benanti's sons Antonio and Salvino have increasingly taken on managerial roles at the family winery and have done so with a powerful sense of charge and purpose. The generational shift at Benanti is impressive and I was very happy to visit with both father and sons during my last trip to Etna. They have streamlined production, removing some lesser-performing wines. At the same time, they restructured their vineyard holdings, selling off property and buying two hectares of Nerello Mascalese in Rovittello, 2.5 hectares of Carricante in Milo and possibly two more hectares of Carricante in Viagrande. Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate (www.robertparker.com)  (Sept 2017)