Arianna Occhipinti 'SP68' Rosso 2024

Arianna Occhipinti is the niece of Giusto Occhipinti, whose COS wines are undisputedly amongst the very best of Sicily. In 1998, Giusto invited her to help him out at Vinitaly for four days. Arianna was 16 at the time and knew nothing about wine; the experience made such an impression on her that she decided to study viticulture and oenology in university. This quickly proved counter-intuitive, since everything she had learned from her uncle (organic viticulture, hand-harvesting, native yeast fermentations) clashed with what she was being taught in school.

Undeterred, Arianna started making her own wine with just one hectare of abandoned vines in the commune of Vittoria. Over the years, she has progressively expanded the estate by replanting 10 hectares of the region's indigenous Frappato and Nero d’Avola. A few years later, she was able to start renting 50 year old Frappato and 45 year old Nero d’Avola vines, both independently bottled as single varietal/vineyard cuvées. In 2012, an additional eight hectares of 19 year old vines were acquired, which for the time being will be used to produce more of her ‘SP68’. All of the vineyards are worked using biodynamic principles and the wines are  produced as hands off as possible with natural yeasts, no temperature control, no fining or filtration, and minimal SO2 at bottling.

The SP68 is the name of the main road that passes near Arianna Occhipinti’s hometown of Vittoria. it lies in the far south of Sicily just to the west of Ragusa. Occhipinti’s ‘SP68’ Rosso is a blend of 70% Frappato and 30% Nero d’Avola. It is fermented and aged for 6 months in stainless steel tanks. ‘SP68’ Rosso has hints of flowers, leather, smoke, spice and herbs with wafts of licorice, earth and mandarin rind. A blend of Nero d’Avola and Frappato that is slightly purple/red in the glass and shows further notes of wild cherries, plum and mulberry with just a touch of raspberry lift.