2/17/26 - 

Lately, I have been tasting some excellent Sicilian wines that I am excited to bring to the selection here at Chambers Street. Ciro Biondi (above on right) and Arianna Occhipinti are old friends of the shop, while Pianogrillo and SRC are newer to the shelves. 

Ciro Biondi
Ciro is an old friend of the shop, a charming and stoic winemaker. With a long family history of winemaking in the Trecastagni comune on Etna along with the mentorship of Salvo Foti, Ciro was well poised to inspire new generations of winemakers after he took over his family's estate in 1999. Along with his wife Stephanie, Ciro works with some of the oldest vines on Etna’s steep slopes on the Southern end, and the wines from Biondi have had a long history at our shop! We're very happy to reintroduce them to our readers, many of whom are very familiar with the Outis Rosso on offer today, plus the addition of the single vineyard San Nicolo and Cisterna Fuori, both terraced plots on the edges of old craters on Mount Etna.

Pianogrillo 
When I tasted Pianogrillo's 2023 Terre Siciliane Grecanico, I was blown away. It represents one of my favorite styles of white wine: ripe, deep fruit with an undercurrent of minerality, in this case the soils are marl (limestone and clay). I have mostly known Pianogrillo for their excellent olive oils, olives, and tomato products imported by Gustiamo from my time in Italian restaurants and stores. What a pleasure to try their wine for the first time! 
 
Located in the town of Chiaramonte Gulfi in Southern Sicily, their winemaking philosophy is based on native grapes, indigenous yeasts, and organic viticulture across their four hectares of vines. I am really excited to introduce this bottle to the shelf at Chambers and to taste more wine from Pianogrillo!

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SRC
SRC is a small producer on the Northern slope of Etna making fantastic, expressive wines. Their name represents the initials of the proprietors Rori and Cinzia, along with their daughter, Sandra (in photo above). When said in Italian, it sounds very similar to 'esserci' a verb literally translating to 'to be there' but more figuratively rooting the family to North Etna. A labor of love of slowly acquiring tiny plots here and there has organically grown into the current operation. Even the labels are designed by Cinzia, an artistic representation of the volcano they call home. 
 
Their farming is in the Contrada Sottano, a shadier area which produces wines of great aromatic complexity, acidity, tension, and elegance. Today we have their Etna Bianco 2023 and Etna Rosso 2022, both a mix of small plots with very old vines. In the cellar, fermentation is natural, no sulfur is used, and they mainly age in cement and stainless steel- allowing purity of fruit. These are joyful, expressive wines to open frequently and share with loved ones!

Arianna Occhipinti
Another longtime friend of Chambers Street is Arianna Occhipinti, whose 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 we can offer her fantastic Siccagno bottling of Nero D'Avola from the 2023 vintage as well as a few bottles of her most limited Grotte Alte from 2021.
 
The variety of excellent Sicilian wines never ceases to amaze me. From playful and fruit forward, to serious and smoky, there is much to love and appreciate here!
 
-Marisa Licandro

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