New Arrivals Returning Favorites: Sicily Edition
New Arrivals Returning Favorites: Sicily Edition
Lately, I have been tasting some excellent Sicilian wines that I am excited to bring to the selection here at Chambers Street. Ciro Biondi and Arianna Occhipinti are old friends of the shop, while Pianogrillo and SRC are newer to the shelves.
Ciro Biondi
Ciro Biondi 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.
Nick Speranza from Oliver McCrum Wines & Spirits will be at the shop this Thursday 2/19 from 5-7pm pouring the three Biondi reds. Please join us for a fun tasting learning about the soulful selections from the South side of 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!
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. 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
Please allow until Friday 2/20 for pick up or delivery
Pianogrillo 2023 Terre Siciliane Grecanico
A fresh and crisp Grecanico, and in true Sicilian style, very versatile at the table. It turns out that Grecanico Dorato (the grape used here) is closely related to Garganega (the grape used in Soave), but this news surprised me...
$27.99
SRC 2023 Etna Bianco
Fresh and bright and expressive! Lemon, lime, apple, and pear with an ever so slight spritz lifting the wine. The finish is quite salty, stony, and long. Carricante with a little Grecanico from two parcels: Crasà (old with igneous rock...
$45.99
SRC 2022 Etna Rosso
A pitch perfect expression of Mount Etna reds. Friendly fruit, earth, a touch of peppercorn, smoke and spice. The two vineyards that go into this blend are Crasa and Calderara, both sitting around 650-700 meters above sea level. This wine...
$45.99
Biondi 2024 Etna Rosso Outis
Outis Rosso is a blend of 80% Nerello Mascalese and 20% Nerello Cappuccio, native grapes planted inside the volcanic craters of the Chianta and Cisterna Fuori vineyards on Mount Etna. It's an elegant style of Etna Rosso, medium/light bodied with...
$49.99
Biondi 2024 Etna Rosso San Nicolo
Ciro Biondi's family has owned vineyards on the southern side of Mt Etna since at least 1800, and first sold bottled wine under their label a century ago. The modern iteration of the Biondi winery started in 1999. Ciro (an...
$74.99
Biondi 2022 Etna Rosso Cisterna Fuori
Ciro Biondi's family has owned vineyards on the southern side of Mt Etna since at least 1800, and first sold bottled wine under their label a century ago. The modern iteration of the Biondi winery started in 1999. Ciro (an...
$74.99
Occhipinti 2023 Nero D'Avola Siccagno
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...
$59.99
Occhipinti 2021 Cerasuolo DOCG Grotte Alte
From our distributor Bowler: 50% Frappato/50% Nero d'Avola. Grotte Alte is Arianna's only DOCG wine, in this case Vittoria's most famous, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, a blend of the best native varietals, Nero d'Avola and Frappato. "Grotte Alte" is named for...
$92.99
