$82.00
Grape: Frappato, Nero d’Avola
From: Sicily, Italy
Farming Practice: Organic
Grotte Alte is a Mediterranean wine that preserves the taste of all the sea and air and Iblei mountains. It is aged in Slavonian Oak barrels for about 32 months and then an additional 4 months in bottle. Arianna says "Grotte Alte" is the most ambitious of her wines, it is elegant and proud. This is the grown-up version of her SP68.
When Arianna Occhipinti was 16, her uncle Giusto Occhipinti of COS Wines, invited her to come and stay and help out at his winery. This experience was the start of her winemaking career. She went to school soon after to study winemaking but quickly realized her uncle made wine in a way that school was not going to teach her. She learned what she needed from him and then began making her own wine. When making wine, Arianna respects all aspects of the land and winemaking process, even if it requires more time. She respects the wine as if it was a person creating wine that tastes like the place it was born while also telling stories about her as a winemaker.