2015 Pretiosa Albanello

We were up in Boston this past weekend, visiting our son, daughter-in-law and their new baby. That was the focus of our visit, but since we were in Boston, our son wanted us to visit the places that he had been going to to broaden his wine experiences. One such place was the wine tastings that he was attending at Federal Wine & Spirits, an activity that we heartily approve of. In September, I blogged about 2015 Julian Haart Riesling 1000L, that he bought from Federal Wine & Spirits to share with us. So, on our visit to Boston, we found out how conveniently located the store was relative to his apartment. We went into the wine store from a very inconspicuous entry way. If you didn't know where you were going, you would totally miss this place. If there were 10 people in the store, it would be a crowd. Our son lead us to a stairwell that went downstairs. "Watch your head!" When we landed downstairs, we met Michael who attended to our every need and more!

Our eye first landed on a 2008 Black Label Carema. We had the opportunity to taste a 2000 Ferrando Carema Black Label, so knew that we were in a cave with some special wines. Michael then pointed us to many other wines from Italy. This 2015 Pretiosa Albanello was one that he recommended. It is a disappearing grape variety that comes from Sicily.
That peaked our interest and we bought a bottle to have with a few goat cheeses that we purchased for appetizers. The wine was light, fresh and had a hint of floral quality to it and a flavor unlike any other white wine I've tasted, though it did remind me of a Torontes. I also thought I detected a bit of coconut in the finish. This coconut note is ephemeral and I only detected it on my first sips before I began having the cheeses. It did pair well with both the hard and soft goat cheeses.
Now that I am at home, I turned to Jancis Robinson's Wine Grapes to learn more about Albanello¹: This is a Sicilian variety that can be confused with Albanella (Marche). Albanello is a late ripening variety. In the 18th century, it produced a sweet wine, obtained from grapes that were sun dried on mats for several days. Currently, there are approximately 309 acres of Albanello on the island of Sicily.
It is difficult to find this wine. My husband did a cursory search on the Interet and Federal Wine & Spirits is the nearest place to us that sells this wine. I guess it will be a return trip to Boston, may be in the near future.
References:
1. 1. J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours, pg 22, Allen Lane 2012 ISBN 978-1-846-14446-2.
Other resources:
2. Santa Maria La Nave.
3. Federal Wine & Spirits: 2015 Cantine Gulino Albanello Pretiosa