2011 Cecilia, Ansonica, Elba DOC, Tuscan Island White, Italy.
This beautiful and super rare wine comes from the tiny Tuscan Island of Elba, famous for being the place of Napoleon’s exile. Ansonica is the local name for the Insolia grape, a varietal found on Sicily mostly and it makes for an exotic and flavorful wine. The Cecilia Ansonica is perfumed with tropical flowers, saline and mineral spices with hints of honeysuckle and guava before a palate of peach, apricot and tangy lemon/lime with a clear mineral streak and flowing crisp finish of pear and nectarine. Elba is a small Island and the vineyards are rugged and sparse, but these whites are in high demand and we don’t find many in the US, so it was thrilling to sample such a wine and fine example, they are pure passion in a glass.
($26 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive
