Arianna Occhipinti, Il Frappato 2024

Frappato is the native grape of Vittoria in Sicily, producing its only DOCG: Cerasuolo di Vittoria, which is a blend with Sicily's other major red variety, Nero d'Avola. For this wine, Arianna Occhipinti celebrates organically and biodynamically grown old vine Frappato ias the solo star. Because of the grape's thick skins she chooses a long, slow skin contact maceration, gentle extraction and fermentation in concrete tanks.

The wine has an addictive quality, enticing you back into the glass for another sniff - everchanging aromas of pomegranate and cherries and smoke, flowers and blood orange; and a palate that is concentrated yet lifted and mineral and fresh. In Arianna's own words: "Frappato was born from my childhood dream of making a wine that tastes like the land I work, the air I breathe, and my own thoughts. It is tart, sanguine and elegant. It is Vittoria and the Iblei mountains. It is the wine that most resembles me, courageous, original and rebellious. It has peasant origins, which is why it loves its roots and the past it carries within.”