Alta Mora, Etna bianco DOC 2013 from Cusumano
‘Alta’, because this 100% Carricante is born more than eight hundred meters above the slopes of Etna, ‘Mora’, because it «lives on lava».
«The combination of environment and attention – continues Diego Cusumano – has given this wine an extraordinary natural acidity and a marked sapidity. It’s like coming down from the volcano, at the bottom you suddenly see Taormina, kissed by the sun. This type of vinification begins with soft pressing, passing through a long stay on the lees and a subsequent refinement in the bottle, which adds complexity and elegance to an uncomparable point.
«Certainly, and Alta Mora proves it, the Carricante grape has won a place in the Olympus of the world of white wines».
«For our part – stresses Ciccio Sultano – we have welcomed Alta Mora in the cellar of the restaurant with the utmost respect for a wine that will be long-lived and full of surprises.
«I propose that you combine it with a revolutionary dish such as Sicily, the centre, the sea, where the sauce, the most technical and speculative part of a cook, has, unusually, the place of honour».
In four concentric circles a sauce with cuttlefish ink, saffron, tomato sauce and fennel alternate. All covered with an oyster jelly. Next to it, in a bowl, ready to be dipped, there is octopus, cuttlefish, squid, prawns and raw vegetables.
Ciccio Sultano
A practical mind
