The colour is medium ruby. On the nose barnyard and vinaigrette typical of natural wines. With some air, some more pleasant aromas of black cherries, liquorice and chilli pepper appear, but you have to sniff carefully to find them. In the mouth light and acidic. Not much aftertaste worth mentioning.
This wine has only 12% alcohol. The relatively low alcohol content is not the only feature that is subdued for a Sicilian Nero d’Avola, a grape known for producing full-bodied, fruit-driven wines.
This “natural” version of Nero d’Avola is made by Arianna Occhipinti, who has been working in the wine industry since age 16. Arianna has released red wines under her own label starting with the 2004 vintage, when she was 22. She has been farming all her land according to biodynamic principles since 2009. With over 200’000 bottles a year, nowadays she is one of the largest producers of biodynamic wines.
Occhipinti introduces very little sulphur in the wine, uses no filtration, and follows an extremely simple vinification process: wild fermentations from native airborne yeasts and slow maceration in cement tanks. Siccagno then ages for 22 months in large Slavonian oak barrels.
Arianna Occhipinti is fluent in English, which has helped with U.S. distribution and press. She is also very good at marketing, which in the wine world never hurts…
For this bottle I paid 25.90 EUR at the Foodsicily Market in Cefalù. I personally don’t find it much more enjoyable than a 2.59 EUR a litre bulk wine.
I wonder if paying almost 30 EUR for a wine like this is not a form of eno-masochism…
Country: Italy
Region: Sicily
Grapes: Nero d’Avola
Type: Red
Vintage: 2019
Producer: Arianna Occhipinti
Price range: Medium (15-30 US$)
Pascal’s Enjoyment Index: 1/5