In 2016, Arianna acquired new property and planted four plots of Grillo, totaling two hectares. These vines are in the contrada of Santa Margherita ("SM" with a cheeky strike-through on the label since contrada names are not legal) in Chiaramonte Gulfi, at the foot of the Iblei mountains, just north of Vittoria. They are planted on hillsides surrounded by pine forest, old oaks and ancient olive trees at almost 500 meters altitude, far higher up than Occhipinti's Vittoria vineyards. This area is quite cool, buffeted by winds constantly and at the furthest extreme for ripening grapes. The marine soils are sandy calcareous marl of ancient origin. The farming is certified-organic and the harvest by hand. The grapes are destemmed and fermented spontaneously in concrete tank with a 24-hour maceration. The wine is aged for a year in a combination of concrete and Slavonian oak botte and bottled without fining or filtering. 

Arianna Occhipinti

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 wine in 2006 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-yea- old Nero D'Avola vines, both independently bottled as single varietal/vineyard cuvées. 

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.