New Arrivals from Arianna Occhipinti!
7/7/25 -
Arianna Occhipinti is a longtime friend of Chambers Street Wines, who has earned a devoted following since she first started making wines in the early 2000s. I vividly remember feeling like the happiest guy in the world getting her a coffee during one of the early Louis/Dressner "Real Wine" Tours, when CSW would team up with LDM to host a public tasting in Tribeca with their growers. At the time, it felt like being in the presence of a Hollywood star just to taste with Arianna. Now, years later, we're old friends who have had parallel experiences coming into the wine world when we were relatively young and carrying on family businesses and traditions. It's always a joy to see Arianna when she's in town, and second to that is the joy of opening new wines from Occhipinti! Lucky for us, we have new vintages of the SP68 lineup and her mystical Frappato, along with some remaining bottles of the Siccagno (100% Nero D'Avola). As a little extra, only because I had it yesterday with artisanal pizza and was reminded of how absolutely delicious it is (and because of the familial relationship, the O in COS being her uncle), we're including the COS Cerasuolo di Vitoria in the collection today!
-Eben Lillie
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Arianna Occhipinti's wines took the wine world by the storm over a decade ago. Many people had written off Sicily as a bastion of commercial, over-cropped wines, but when they tasted Arianna’s soulful and balanced examples of Nero d’Avola and Frappato, they were forced to take notice and reassess what Sicilian wine can be. Since releasing her first vintage at the age of 24 in 2006, she has been a champion of Sicilian viticulture – through organic practices, cooperative work with other winemakers, and raising the profile of her island’s indigenous grapes. It's hard to track down her wines at times, but today we're happy to offer a modest and exemplary lineup!
Occhipinti 2024 SP68 Bianco
Structurally zippy, with a little tannic kiss, and medium acidity, Ariana's SP68 Bianco is made from Zibibbo and Albanello grapes grown on red sand and limestone soils. The fruit is co-fermented in concrete, with skin maceration for 2 weeks on average. Concrete aging is for 8 months before being bottled unfiltered. If you're ever having a dull day, the energy in this bottle will wake you right up!
Occhipinti 2024 SP68 Rosso
Occhipinti's SP68, named after the local road that abutts her family's estate, is a blend of Frappato and Nero D'Avola picked from four different vineyard sites. Grapes are picked by hand, typically destemmed and fermented together in concrete. Aging is also in concrete. In the glass, the wine is a fresh purple color. The nose is mix of tender black cherry, violets, and a little hint of shaved cocoa. On the palate, the wine is driven by a perky minerality, along with plum and cherry flavors. Lightly tannic, and lively, medium acidity.
Occhipinti 2023 'Il Frappato' IGT Terre Siciliane
This is an elegant Frappato that expanded and redifined our entire understanding of what a Frappato from Sicily could acheive when Arianna first started producing it as a sinle varietal wine in 2006. From two different parcels, with vines averaging around 50 years-old, the fruit is typically destemmed and fermented in concrete, with a long, careful 30 day maceration. Aged for an average of 8 months in Slovenian oak botti before moving to concrete for another 8 months the wine is bottled unfiltered. This wine needs some time in the bottle or a couple of hours open if you can't wait 5-10 years!
Occhipinti 2022 'Siccagno' Nero D'Avola
Nero d'Avola is the primary red grape of Sicily, and while capable of making very fine wine, most examples are very ordinary. This is one of the greats — an expression of the grape at it's most elegant and refined — none of the standard clunky fruit and overextraction, but bright dark cherry, herbs, chalk, all singing together.
