Tasting Idda with Gaia Gaja

“We have a little project in Sicily,” Gaia Gaja modestly told friends and colleagues a few years ago.

IDDA is a word that Gaia kept overhearing in conversations between locals in Sicily. She found out that the word meant ‘she’ in Sicilian dialect - and, more often than not, it was used when people spoke about the mountain. Which was all the time. ⁣
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Mount Etna dominates Sicilian life and the people who live there are at the mercy of her mood. Gaia describes her as “a strict but generous mother” - fertile, violent, majestic, unpredictable.⁣
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The pure energy of Etna was what inspired the Gaja family to explore making wine there. Gaia tells us that wines from Etna have a lot of similarities with Barbaresco and Barolo: “they are wines with mystery”. But instead of the reds, they will be focusing on white wines. ⁣

IDDA 2020

The “small project” is to have a winery focused on the Carricante grape, specifically Carricante grown on the south slope of Etna. It’s a late ripening variety, with electric freshness and mineral notes. It’s a bit warmer on the south slopes, so the idea is that they could achieve phenolic ripeness earlier without losing freshness. The ageing potential could also be groundbreaking. ⁣
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We tasted the 2019 and 2020 IDDA Bianco, as well as the ‘17, ‘18 and ‘19 IDDA Rosso. The style they’ll be moving forward with is the IDDA Bianco 2020: mineral, precise, savoury and structured. There is a pleasant sulphuric note, which mingles with white blossom, lemon and exotic dried herbs. ⁣
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Being the pioneers that they are, perhaps we’ll have to wait for the world to catch up with their vision for Carricante. But they believe it is the grape of the future - and I believe them.