COS Pithos Rosso 2022

On a shoestring budget, the three friends vinified the grapes from their parents’ vineyards. They even bought Angelo Gaja’s used French barrels back in 1983 to age the wine. By the late 1980s, they started buying new barriques and felt the influence of California’s Napa Valley.

Other winemakers in the area were impressed with the results and also began making Cerasuolo di Vittoria, using the two local varieties instead of selling the grape juice from overripe Nero d’Avola “Then we took a huge step back,” Occhipinti recalls. “We tried some of our earliest bottlings, those matured in used barriques, and we were shocked at the difference. With its mineral notes and earthy sensations, the wine was so much more interesting than the later vintages matured in new oak with sensations of vanilla and toast. Just as everyone else in the mid-1990s invested in new French barriques, we began recycling ours. Since then, the journey has taken them away from oak to cement and finally into amphora in order to obtain the most aromatic expression of the wines. He also notes that COS does not use selected yeasts and has never used chemicals in the vineyards. “Our goal isn’t to make wines that impress wine critics, but to make wine that expresses our great terroir. Here, Nero d’Avola is more elegant than in other regions, and has these great mineral notes from the soil. This is what gives the Cerasuolo di Vittoria its rich fruit, while the Frappato gives the wine its floral components and freshness,” Occhipinti says.

The Pithos Rosso is an amphorae cuvée, fermented in Giare which are terracotta amphorae of 250l and 400litres which effortlessly comes through in the grainy yet rich mouthfeel.