Arianna Occhipinti, Sicily

From one of the most southern points of Europe comes a delicate, ‘light-on-its-feet’ wine, which tastes like it comes from much further north. Floral notes of roses with red-berry fruit and white pepper greet the nose. Ripe, summer fruit with a savoury, saline edge on the palate, this is delicate and fresh with notes of raspberry, red cherries and spice, while crisp acidity and light tannins round this out perfectly. Drink 2015-2018
Chris Pollington – Private Account Manager

Located in Sicily ’s south-eastern Val di Noto province, the landscape of which is dominated by the red-loam-over-whitelimestone soils and dry-stone walls of the Iblei Mountain plateau, and by such beautiful towns such as Siracusa, Vittoria and Modica; this is a world away from Etna, which looms on the horizon. The Occhipinti family is synonymous with the Frappato grape that underpins Siciliy’s only DOCG: Cerasuolo di Vittoria. Arianna kicked off in 2004, making wines in a family farmhouse, before transferring, in 2013, to a purposebuilt winery, where her 22 hectares of Frappato and Nero d’Avola, along with 1.5 hectares of intense Albanello and Zibibbo white grapes, are vinified using cement and Stockinger barrels (made of Slavonian, German and Austrian oak)