Arianna Occhipinti Frappato di Contrade Cuvée 20 2023
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The Land
A contrada is a named district, the Sicilian equivalent of a lieu-dit, and Occhipinti farms across nine of them around Vittoria. In 2016 she began bottling Frappato from three of them separately, Pettineo, Bombolieri, and Fossa di Lupo, on the argument that the differences between these parcels are as legible as anything in Burgundy once you stop covering them up. The common ground is red sand over sub-Apennine calcareous limestone at roughly 250 to 280 meters, between the Iblei Mountains and the sea. The variations are the point: Pettineo runs sandier and gives the silkiest wine; Bombolieri carries the highest chalk content and the finest tannins; Fossa di Lupo has more limestone and delivers sharper acidity and more structure.
The Wine
100% Frappato from old alberello-trained vines, and a departure from how this series normally works. 2023 marks Occhipinti's twentieth harvest, and to mark it she brought all three contrade together into one bottling rather than releasing them separately: Cuvée 20 is Pettineo, Bombolieri, and Fossa di Lupo assembled in a single wine. Fermentation is spontaneous in concrete with no temperature control and an extended maceration on the skins, followed by aging in large Slavonian oak botti and bottling unfiltered with minimal sulfur. 2023 in Sicily was a hot growing season with real heat spikes, though less severe than the drought that followed in 2024. The wine shows rose petal, sour cherry, blood orange peel, dried oregano, and white pepper, pale in the glass, with the chalk of Bombolieri, the silk of Pettineo, and the acid spine of Fossa di Lupo all doing their part. Longer and more complete than any of the three alone.
The People
Arianna Occhipinti founded her estate in 2004 at twenty-two with a single hectare of abandoned vines in Contrada Fossa di Lupo and released her first commercial vintage in 2006. She now farms roughly 25 certified organic hectares, biodynamic since 2009, across those nine contrade. Her cellar rules have not changed in two decades: hand harvest, spontaneous fermentation with airborne yeast, no temperature control, no fining, no filtration, sulfur only at bottling, and concrete throughout since the gravity-fed winery was completed in 2014. Twenty vintages in, blending the crus back together is the kind of thing you do once you have already proven they are different.
Food Pairing
Light in body and high in acid, so it belongs with food rather than before it. Grilled tuna or swordfish with lemon and capers, pasta with tomato and salted ricotta, roast rabbit with olives, or a plate of prosciutto and young pecorino. Serve it cool, around 60 degrees, and the aromatics come forward rather than the alcohol. It rewards a decant and a slow evening.
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Sicily, Italy’s largest island, blends ancient wine traditions with a fresh wave of modern creativity. Its star red grape, Nero d’Avola, thrives in the island’s warm, sun-soaked climate, producing intensely flavored wines with dark fruit and a hint of savory spice. Along the western coast lies the historic heartland of Marsala, a fortified wine prized for both sweet and dry styles. Rising above the island’s varied landscapes is Mount Etna, an active volcano whose mineral-rich soils and cooler elevations result in elegantly structured reds and nuanced whites. From coast to crater, Sicily’s wine culture is as diverse and vibrant as the region itself.
Italy - Sicily
Frappato is a light-bodied, aromatic red grape variety native to Sicily, known for producing wines with vibrant red fruit flavors, particularly cherry and strawberry, often accompanied by floral notes. It thrives in the warm Mediterranean climate and sandy soils of the region, creating fresh, lively wines with soft tannins and a hint of spice. Frappato is often blended with Nero d'Avola to create the famous Cerasuolo di Vittoria, but it also shines as a standalone varietal wine, offering a unique expression of Sicilian terroir.
