Too often, currently, we are used to talk about Sicilian wines thinking almost exclusively about Etna with its Nerello, Carricante and Minnella. In fact, Sicily is definitely much more, as Giambattista Cilia, Cirino Strano and Giusto Occhipinti knew as early as 1980, when they bought an old cellar, with a plot of about three and a half hectares, in the area of Vittoria (Ragusa), and established COS winery.
The area in question was (and is still today) characterized by a typically Mediterranean climate, with warm temperatures and great fertility; pedoclimatic conditions known for over three millennia. Every civilization that has passed there has left its legacy to the next one, and this has pushed the three owners to undertake a path of respect and research, accompanied by a holistic view of the vine-nature-man microcosm which led to the adoption of biodynamic practices.
Again for the same reason, also in the cellar, winemaking practices are inspired by a productive methodology that accompanies the transformation of grapes into wine, without any “change”, as neutral as possible. In this direction, finally, goes the choice to definitively abandon, in 2007, the wood aging containers, which leave their own aromas and tastes in wines, replacing them with vitrified concrete tanks and clay amphorae.
The Pithos Rosso, for instance, a blend of Frappato di Vittoria (40%) and Nero d’Avola (60%) from 20-year-old vines cultivated in the Bastonaca area, on red soils originating from sub-Apennine sands of the Pliocene, at 250 meters above sea level, ferments spontaneously, on the skins, in amphora (Pithos in Greek means precisely Amphora) and, always in amphora it ages for some months. After bottling, the wine rests three months in glass and, therefore, is ready to be marketed.
The 2018 vintage has a really bright ruby color, with crimson streaks, and a range of main aromas of durone, wild blackberry, rosehip and myrtle, with a contour of dried violets pot pourri, orange blossom, orange peel and echoes of undergrowth and garrigue. The taste is decidedly elegant, with the perfect balance between iodine flavor, softness and citrus acidity, with this last one being the real backbone of the sip, around which, from the center of the palate, unfolds a fruity, floral and vegetal counterpoint that lasts even after the good length closure.
Rating: 90/100
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