Ciro Biondi, Etna Bianco, “Outis”

If you were to experience today’s wine in the place where it is made—a terraced vineyard rooted in black volcanic pumice, with the smoldering, snow-capped peak of Mount Etna looming in the distance—it would be etched in your memory forever. You might not want to drink anything else: That’s the power of this place, as anyone who’s visited this still-active Sicilian volcano will tell you.Still, this shimmering, mineral white will stay with you even if your first sip is at your kitchen counter. Real wines of place do that. Even more interesting to me is how often Etna whites are compared to those of another, radically different place: Chablis. Blessed with high altitudes, mineral-rich soils, and a well-adapted native variety (Carricante), Ciro Biondi and his wife, Stef, craft impeccable wines in backyard-garden quantities, working out of an ancient stone palmento and caring for spectacular terraced vineyards that have been in his family for generations. What a life, and what a wine: This