SP68 Rosso - 2019
Arianna Occhipinti
- Region
- Italy 禄 Sicilia 禄 IGP Terre Siciliane
- Type
- red still, dry
- Producer
- Arianna Occhipinti
- Vintage
- 2019
- Grapes
- Frappato, Nero d'Avola
- Alcohol
- 12.5
- Sugar
- 1.8
- Volume
- 750 mL
- Cellar
- not available
SP68 is the name of the road that cuts through Arianna's original vineyard in Vittoria. This road has existed for hundreds of years already. And the wine acquired this name because Arianna sees wine as a journey.
Ratings
Unfortunately, I have finished most of my bottles of this beautiful 'Cerasuolo' blend. So lately, I don't drink it as often as I used to. And to my shame, it reached the right state. It reached good levels of balance and fruit quality. And it's not funky anymore! Sour cherry, red apple, red flowers, pomegranate and spices. Juicy, fresh and soooo enjoyable. Why there is so little wine in a bottle?
P.S. Paired with home made olive focaccia.
A wine that we struggled with for the whole evening. Unexpected funkiness for such 'age'. But after decanting and finding the right temperature, it became enjoyable. And no rotten notes and fizziness. Instead, the nose is full of cherry, red apple, pomegranate, raspberry, spices, clay and blood. Medium body, intense and well balanced. Wine with character. In a good sense.
My favourite 'table' wine! Slightly reductive bouquet with notes of cherry, plum, spices, blood and clay. Frappato reduced body, yet SP68 rosso is intense. Sophisticated, fresh and easy going. Mineral aftertaste with flavours of clay, violets and spiced plums.
6 months passed since my last review and now it is more fruit-forward than before with less brett in it. Cherry, clay and white pepper. Delicate, not complex and simply delicious. Still one of my go-to wines.
Not a secret that SP68 Rosso is one of my go-to wines, when I need something light, easy going, gastronomic and fun. Only if it would be cheaper. Brett touch, cherry, clay, white pepper. Juicy and delicious.
I have no other options except for repeating myself. Price is growing, SP68 becomes more elegant and interesting, and my love for this wine stays. Juicy, gulpable and tasty. Cherry, white pepper, clove and clay with light brett touch. Fresh, tannic. I see potential, I want to explore.
The only thing I don't like about this wine is price that keeps growing. Juicy, gulpable and tasty. Cherry, white pepper, clove and clay with light brett touch. I love that with time it is settling down and become more elegant and interesting.
Well, I like this wine. Yes, you need to give it some time to get rid of sulfur compounds (otherwise smells like toiled on SP68 road). Yes, it is not mainstream. But common, it is a young, juicy and tasty wine! Cherry, white pepper and clove. Good acidity and tannins, light and refreshing. Wonderful and easy-drinking beauty from Vittoria.
SP68 is a road but, it is also a young wine. Elegant brett attack after opening the bottle, it fades away bringing red currant, sour cherry and violets. Juicy and pleasant, with a delicate taste and the freshness of Sicily. Chill it a little bit and enjoy.
Arianna Occhipinti
Arianna Occhipinti is a winemaker from Vittoria who founded her own winery in 2004, bottled her first commercial vintage in 2006 and today works exclusively with estate fruit. She embraced winemaking thanks to her uncle, Guisto Occhipinti, proprietor of Vittoria's most famous winery, COS. At the age of 16 years, Arianna started to help him in the cellars. She loved this experience so much that her future connected to wine tightly.
After graduating from oenology school, Arianna started with only 1 hectare of abandoned vines attached to a family vacation house. Over the years, she acquired 25 hectares featuring only autochthonous varieties - 50% Frappato, 35% Nero d'Avola and 15% white varieties Albanello and Zibibbo. Almost all vines are young because Arianna planted them on her own. But she also added to her holdings 60 years old albarello-trained vines, which she initially rented.
Not irrigating, harvesting late and not using fertilizers are the secret to making more elegant wines in the area. The freshness and minerality in my wines come from the subsoils. Any wine made from young vines or chemically grown vines feeding only off of the top soil will have the cooked, hot characteristics people associate with wine from warm regions.
These days Arianna Occhipinti is famous as a biodynamic winemaker. There is zero irrigation in her vineyards in this hot, windy climate! To protect the vines, she grows cover crops (like fava beans) and other plants between every other row. Arianna tries to minimize intervention in the winemaking process.
Arianna is regarded as a symbol of success in the world of Biodynamic Farming and Natural Wine Making. She has remained committed to those principles while evolving from her originally more dogmatic outlook. Below is her response to importer Jules Dressner's question about her feeling about the term "natural wine":
I make natural wine, but this is a term I'm beginning to be less and less comfortable with, because its implications are very complicated. I really want to stress that my main goal is to make a good wine that reflects where it comes from, and for me the only way to successfully do this is to make the wine naturally. When I first started, people were just starting to talk about natural wine. It was very important to me to think about all these issues, and in those early years I definitely had a more militant attitude about it. Making natural wine was a mission, something worth fighting for. Now that I've grown up a little bit, the mission is making wine of terroir. You have to respect the vineyards, and nature in general. When I wake up in the morning, I want to feel free. Making this wine is my opportunity to feel free. So again, my goal is not to make natural wine, working this way is a process to make good wine.