Discovery / Wineries / Benanti & the Etna Wine Revival
Wineries · Follow your curiosity
Benanti & the Etna Wine Revival
Giuseppe Benanti’s modern project connects Etna’s local grapes with research, collaboration and a patient Carricante cellar story.
A little acquaintance, at a glance.
- Place
- Etna · Sicily
- Modern foundation
- Giuseppe Benanti · 1988
- Wine companion
- Pietra Marina · Carricante
- Investigate
- Site · yeast · lees · time
An older family history and a modern project
Giuseppe Benanti founded the modern winery as Tenuta di Castiglione in 1988. Benanti’s timeline places its first bottled vintage in 1990, following experimental harvests. The family account links the project with research, local grapes and collaboration with winemakers and scientists, including Salvo Foti.
The modern enterprise belongs alongside an older family connection to wine at Viagrande. Those histories are related, but they are not the same founding event.
Research belongs beside the vineyard story
Benanti describes a programme to select indigenous Etna yeasts, with work completed in 2010 after several years of trials. That gives a concrete connection between vineyard, laboratory and cellar.
The word indigenous should not automatically be read as spontaneous fermentation without any selection. Ask how a producer obtained and used its yeast, then read the particular wine’s account. A regional identity and a fermentation decision are separate questions.
Carricante at Milo
Pietra Marina provides the direct connection to our Carricante wine guide. Benanti identifies it as 100% Carricante, Etna Bianco Superiore, from Contrada Rinazzo at Milo. Its published programme describes steel fermentation and extended maturation on fine lees, followed by bottle rest.
The specific wine does not define every Etna white. Other cuvées can have different sites, compositions and production records. Follow the full label, then use the maker’s current technical account.
A family enterprise can change its ownership structure
The producer’s timeline records Antonio and Salvino Benanti taking guiding roles in 2012 and Brave Wine’s significant minority investment in 2023. A family story should not be simplified into an unsupported claim of unchanged sole family ownership.
Continue into Etna Wines and Carricante Wines. The photograph above shows real steel tanks in France as general equipment context; it does not show Benanti’s cellar, its people or the Pietra Marina lot.
A small Cork Dork discovery
Give your curiosity a little room.
Compare the producer’s history with Pietra Marina’s technical account. Keep the founding timeline, vineyard origin, yeast approach and lees programme in separate notes.
Your observations, your words. Small pours welcome.
A few questions worth uncorking.
Does indigenous yeast necessarily mean no selection?
No. Benanti describes a selection and research programme involving local yeast strains.
Is every Etna white the same as Pietra Marina?
No. Its composition and process belong to that particular wine.
Does the photograph show Benanti?
No. It is explicitly labelled as general steel-tank context from Chavignol, France.
Where shall we wander next?
Wineries →People in Wine →Single-Varietal Wines →Sicily →Etna Wines →Carricante →Carricante Wines →Nerello Mascalese →Aging on the Lees →Behind this introduction
Editorial sources checked 25 October 2026. Composition, production rules and cellar practices can vary by appellation, producer and vintage. The producer’s notes are the place to check a particular bottle.