Arianna Occhipinti is a legendary woman figure of natural winemaking in Italy, more specifically in Sicily (Vittoria). 

She is based in the Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG, where she grows Nero d’Avola, Frappato, Albanello, and Zibibbo grapes. She started working at the age of 16 in her uncle’s Giusto Occhipinti famous winery, COS, and released under her own label the first red wine vintage at the age of 22.  

In fact, everything begun in 2004 in the ”Fossa di Lupo” area. A place where the land in the evening becomes reddish and is brushed by the Ibleian winds and leans on one side of a road: the Country Road 68. A country road like many others, but with a special past. In the first hectare of land next to Arianna Occhipinti palmento, in Fossa di Lupo District, others followed. The firm grew into the Bombolieri, Pettineo and Bastonaca Districts. The vineyards are 25 y.o. if not more, and the court on which the vineyards raise themselves is able to trap all the strength of the Ibleian sun. 

Arianna believes in a respectful relationship with the land: a direct contact that turns into profound knowing.

Her belief is that there is a balance, the one of nature, that has to be respected in every gesture: from cultivation and pruning that must be tidy and clean up to the processing of the fruit. Maintaining biodiversity, harvesting by hand. Frappato is a grape variety that owes a lot to Arianna. She was determined from the beginning to rejuvenate this neglected red, Sicilian grape variety and to focus on the production of wines full of elegance and finesse in contrast to the heavy overripe Nero d’Avola that unfortunately Sicily is known.  The grapes are first selected in the vineyard and then in the cellar; this is the only way which allows them to choose the best, healthier and more mature bunches of grapes. If the care of the vineyard is carefully done, the passage into the cellar becomes more simple and it requires less interventions. Healthy grapes, spontaneous fermentation, yeasts, very low in sulphur.

“We do not inherit the land from our ancestors; we borrow It from our children." Saint-Exupery. 

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