Occhipinti

  • Vittoria, Sicily, Italy
Occhipinti

Thank you to importer Louis/Dressner for thie profile of Occhipinti:

(Click here for more on Occhipinti from Louis/Dressner and here for Occhipinti's website)

In 2006, Joe and Kevin fell in love with the wines of an unassuming 24 year old showing her first vintage at an Italian wine fair. Today, Arianna Occhipinti has become a seminal figure for a new generation of wine lovers. Her rise to prominence has been meteoric, and rightfully so: anyone who has ever met Ari will instantly vouch for her charming personality and seemingly boundless energy.

Arianna is the niece of Giusto Occhpinti, 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 was such a good one 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 in selection massale. 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".

Continually pushing things forward, Arianna built herself a new cellar in 2014, a huge step up from the cramped, chaotic space she used to work in. Besides the obvious advantage of having more space, it has permitted Arianna to start a new regiment of concrete fermentation and aging for both "SP68"'s, which used to to be produced in stainless steel and fiberglass. Some of the tanks are glass lined, some aren't. They are all 2mx2m, and with the way they are set up, the juice can be worked by gravity.

Image Producer PRODUCT Description Country / Region

DB0387-21
Biodynamic
Occhipinti IGT Terre Siciliane Bianco "SP68"
2021
60% Zibibbo/40% Albanello. From certified-organic vines, averaging 20+ years old and planted on chalky, sandy soils. The bunches are... Italy

DB3794-20
Biodynamic
Occhipinti Grillo DOC Sicilia Bianco "Vino di Contrada"
2020
Grillo
100% Grillo. In 2016, Arianna acquired new property and planted four plots of Grillo, totaling two hectares. These vines are in the ...
Italy

DB0019-21
Biodynamic
Occhipinti IGT Terre Siciliane Rosso "SP68"
2021
70% Frappato/30% Nero d'Avola. From certified-organic estate vines, averaging 20+ years old and planted on chalky, sandy soils. The bunches... Italy

DB0314-21
Biodynamic
Occhipinti Frappato IGT Terre Siciliane
2021
Frappato
100% Frappato. From multiple certified-organic parcels with vines averaging 40 years old, planted on red-sandy, limestone soils and trained...
Italy

DB5792-19
Biodynamic
Occhipinti Frappato IGT Terre Siciliane "Vino di Contrada" (BB-PT-FL)
2019
Frappato
100% Frappato. The three different wines in this limited-production 6-pack are all Frappato, vinified and aged identically to demonstrate...
Italy

DB0386-19
Biodynamic
Occhipinti Nero d`Avola IGT Terre Siciliane "Siccagno"
2019
Nero d'Avola
100% Nero d'Avola. From multiple, certified-organic parcels with vines averaging 35 years old, planted on red-sandy, limestone soils and...
Italy

DB0548-15
Biodynamic
Occhipinti Grotte Alte Cerasuolo di Vittoria Riserva
2015
50% Frappato/50% Nero d'Avola. Grotte Alte is Arianna's only DOCG wine, in this case Vittoria's most famous, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, a blend... Italy

DB0549-19
Biodynamic
Occhipinti Passito "Passo Nero"
2019
Nero d'Avola
100% Nero d’Avola. Each year, Arianna uses the same few rows of Nero d'Avola in hdr Fosso di Lupo vineyard for perfect, healthy Nero d'...
Italy