2022 Eolia Bianco M Salina Malvasia IGT
Last year, after a mind bending tasting, I wrote to you about 2022 Eolia Bianco M Salina Malvasia. It was such a revelation and one of my most exciting discoveries last year. We sold out and today I write because I’ve just been able to order the last of the remaining bottles.
This is as serious of a white wine as you will ever drink and it’s from Salina, a small island north of Sicily. I now plan to visit to understand this region better.
After my last offer, many of you tepidly threw in a bottle or two in with your order and then returned for more. It’s been a big success and not surprisingly, they’re down to the last of it.
I bought the last 42 bottles available on the importer’s visit last week, and after a refresher on the wine. Sure enough, I found white flowers and citrus scents wafted from the glass. Since I last wrote, it felt like it may have picked up a little weight on the palate. You can feel the density and it still absolutely explodes on the finish, like a cannonball, that ba-boom as you swallow makes your spine tingle.
This is a tremendous wine - we sold it last year at $65 and it’s worth every penny. Today, I’m discounting it to $48 to encourage the rest of you to try it. Or take this opportunity to re-load.
Don’t even think twice! It comes with my highest recommendation and 100% money back guarantee.
90% Malvasia, 10% Catarratto and Inzolia from 4 different parcels in Malfa (altitude 200-260 m above sea level). All stainless steel, whole cluster, batonnage at least once a week, 6 months in bottle before release.
STORY
After a lifetime as wine enthusiasts, Luca Caruso and Natascia Santandrea embarked on a project to make wine together on Salina, a remote Aeolian island off the northern coast of mainland Sicily. Neither name is new to the wine world; both Caruso and Santandrea have curated impressive wine lists for their respective restaurants: Luca at his family’s Michelin-starred hotel, “Signum”, on Salina, and Natascia at the now shuttered “La Tenda Rossa” in central Tuscany. In the throws of the pandemic in 2020, the couple (in life and in work) put their energy into something that they could call their own: making wine on Luca’s native Salina, a place he knows so well he could drive the roads with his eyes closed. 7.5 hectares and two white wines later, the concept is based on zoning; working in single parcels, harvesting and vinifying everything separately. Eolia is as much an homage to the energy, nature and profound amore for the island as it is an ode to the most recurring element of this couple’s relationship: vino buono.
The seven Eolian islands have a unique story and place in Mediterranean history. Colonized by the Greeks around 580 BC, they were believed to be the home of the Greek God of wind, Eolo. Salina is the greenest and most agriculturally rooted of the seven sister islands; a place where the sea and the island’s extinct twin volcanoes are equal protagonists. The cultivation of wine on the island has extended over centuries thanks to the geographic position, influence of the sea, unique sun exposition and legendary winds that sweep over the landscape. Eolia’s vineyards lie in two predominant areas of Salina: at sea level, near the town of Malfa, and in Valdichiesa - quickly becoming the most lauded area to source fruit on the island due to its elevated position between Salina’s two volcanic peaks, Monte delle Felci and Monte dei Porri, at nearly 400 m in altitude. Soils are of volcanic origin, rich with nutrients, and vineyards are traditionally terraced. The island is also known for the cultivation of DOP capers, which are known throughout the world.Â
