"It's stupid not to be organic in Sicily"
How Arianna Occhipinti — who started with one hectare of abandoned vines — became the defining voice of Sicilian natural wine.
Written by The Wine Monk · Singapore
“It’s stupid not to be organic in Sicily,” Ms. Occhipinti said. “We have the perfect climate.”
While the wines of Mount Etna have come to signify wines from Sicily, those are not the only great wines Sicilian land has to offer. If you focus too much on Etna, you may even miss the best of what grapes such as Frappato and Nero d’Avola have to offer.
Long considered to play second fiddle, wines from Vittoria in Sicily have their own personality, not unlike the personality of star winemaker Arianna Occhipinti.
As Eric (@ericasimov) noted, “back in the 1980s and ’90s, international grapes like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay were seen as a way of proving Sicily’s ability to make fine wine despite its reputation for heavy, powerful wines sold in bulk.” Fortunately, this didn’t take off and the star winemakers we have now grown to love went back to indigenous varieties like Frappato and Nero d’Avola.
Arianna started at age 16 in her uncle Giusto Occhipinti’s cellar and loved the whole winemaking so much she decided to pursue oenology. She began with a mere one hectare of abandoned vines. Fast forward to 2006 when she bottled her first commercial vintage.
Her 25 hectares are certified-organic; she practices biodynamic farming, featuring only native Sicilian varietals — Frappato, Nero d’Avola, Albanello and Zibibbo. Her Nero d’Avola, made from vines with an average age of 35 years and aged in big Slovenian 25hl oak barrels for 22 months followed by 2 months of bottle ageing, is class defining. As Arianna puts it, Nero is the grape that unites Sicily from end to end.
We carry her flagship Siccagno Nero d’Avola 2019 — rated 92 by Robert Parker — and the fragrant, lighter-bodied Il Frappato 2020, rated 93 by James Suckling. Both are extraordinary expressions of what these indigenous Sicilian varieties can achieve.
