An Interview With Sicilian Winemaker Arianna Occhipinti

Arianna Occhipinti has a way of making you feel like you’ve known her for years. I met the inspirational and vivacious natural winemaker from Vittoria, a commune in the province of Ragusa in southeast Sicily, in 2011 at an annual wine event in Palermo. Her energy is infectious, and her love for the vines is as deep as her belief in letting grapes and wine express themselves at every turn of the winemaking process.

Both she and her wines represent the spirit of Sicily: strong, surprising, and rooted in tradition with an eye toward the future. Her interest in winemaking developed by chance after attending wine events with her uncle, Giusto Occhipinti, a co-founder of COS winery in Vittoria. Realizing her true passion, she studied oenology and viticulture in Milan.

Upon graduation, Occhipinti returned to Sicily and in 2004, she started cultivating one hectare of vineyards around her home in Vittoria at the foot of the Hyblaean Mountains, setting out to produce wine that captures the essence of the terroir. The land comprised equal parts Frappato and Nero d’Avola, the two indigenous red grape varieties found in Cerasuolo di Vittoria, the region’s most esteemed wine. “It suits my personality, the part that craves contact with nature,” she says. “I love the part of wine that speaks of a territory and its history, the history of a single parcel of land. Winemaking nourishes this part of my character.”

Red wines made in Vittoria’s surroundings can be fresh, elegant, and austere with rich, intense fruit flavors and mineral notes. With that in mind, she implemented organic and biodynamic agricultural methods that respect plant life, which results in chemical-free wines that showcase the grapes’ complete expression.

Occhipinti believed Frappato, with its fresh zippiness and floral and fruit flavors, could make admirable wines and she was right. In championing what others considered a banal grape, she became a natural wine rock star from her first vintage at age 21. “When I started,” she says, I was lucky to make good wine right away but my knowledge of Vittoria wasn’t what it is today. And in 10 years it will be different than what it is today.”

In addition to making wine, Occhipinti has spent the last 10 years working on an ever-expanding project list. She remains uncompromising with traditional and mindful viticulture, though her winemaking and wines have evolved. Her experience and increased awareness of the importance of biodiversity and healthy soils drive her.

In 2015, I drove along windy dusty roads, surrounded by olive trees, wheat fields, and tomatoes to visit Occhipinti’s new vineyard and wine cellar on SP68, the same road as her first vineyard. Here biodiversity reigns, and she continues tilling the vineyards and harvesting the grapes by hand. Rosemary, sage, and other diverse plants run along the top of the vineyard rows while fava beans and oat grasses grow in the vineyard soils, which are overturned every spring.

Occhipinti and her staff have planted a fruit and vegetable garden for their own use. This natural balance strengthens the soils and vineyards, breathing life into the terroir and the wines. While she still makes Frappato, Siccagno (100% Nero d’Avola), Grotte Alte (Cerasuolo di Vittoria-50% Frappato and 50% Nero d’Avola), and her other flagship wines, Occhipinti plans to expand her horizons with new projects, fueled always by her passion to preserve and communicate what Vittoria is through the grape and the place. 

Occhipinti’s interest in the differences between calcareous, sand, and limestone soil led to her Vino di Contrada, three wines that exemplify the potential of Frappato, reflecting the grape’s different expressions from the three contrande (land parcels), one for each of the soils. Contrada FL (Fossa di Lupo) is where she started in 2004. The sandy red and brown soil bears substantial limestone rocks, which results in a fruity, austere Frappato with noteworthy acidity.

Contrada PT (Pettineo) has deep layers of marine sands and produces a silky, fruity Frappato, while the soil for the grapes comprising Contrada BB (Bombolieri) contains a high limestone content resulting in a straightforward wine with lingering acidity.

As for the future, Occhipinti has several projects in mind with biodiversity at the core. Year after year, she seeks interesting terroir in and around Vittoria, either to plant new vineyards or recover old ones. “We live in an area dedicated to viticulture, where Vittoria and its districts are our home,” says Occhipinti. “Every single meter is important. We are the caretakers of this territory, not only for our agricultural projects but above all for our future.”

Four years ago, Occhipinti planted Grillo, a white grape variety, in new vineyards in Chiaramonte Gulfi, a town in Ragusa, and she’ll bottle Grillo wine for the first time this year. The hilly area surrounded by pear trees and century-old oak and olive trees stands at an altitude of 500 meters (1,640 feet). Just as many questioned her choice of Frappato well over a decade ago, I find myself wondering why Grillo? It's found on every wine list in Sicily which renders it less intriguing. But that’s what was once said about Frappato, and I’m willing to bet that Occhipinti’s Grillo will be extraordinary.

Cover photo: Azienda Agricola Arianna Occhipinti